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THE MEANING OF FAITH 



A 



The Meaning of Faith 



HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK 

Author of "The Manhood of the Master," "The Meaning of Prayer,' 
"The Challenge of the Present Crisis," Etc. 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



Tail 



Copyright, 19 17, by 

The International Committee of 

Young Men's Christian Associations 






The Bible Text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard 
Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and 
is used by permission. 



To 
MY MOTHER 

IN MEMORIAM 

U9 Tis human fortune's happiest height to be 
A spirit melodious, lucid, poised, and whole; 
Second in order of felicity 
To walk with such asoul." 



PREFACE 

A book on faith has been for years my hope and intention. 
And now it comes to final form during the most terrific war 
men ever waged, when faith is sorely tried and deeply needed. 
Direct discussion of the war has been purposely avoided; 
the issues here presented are not confined to those which 
the war suggests ; but many streams of thought within the 
tiook flow in channels that the war has worn. Since the 
conflict had to come, I am glad for this book's sake that 
it was not written until it had Europe's holocaust for a 
background. 

Against one misunderstanding the reader should be guarded. 
If anyone approaches these studies, expecting to find detailed 
and special views of Christian doctrine, he will be disap- 
pointed. The perplexities of mind and life and the affirma- 
tions of religious faith, with which these studies deal, lie 
far beneath sectarian doctrinal controversy. I have tried 
to make clear a foundation -on which faith might build its 
thoughts of Christian truth. And while I have spoken freely 
of God and Christ and the Spirit, of the Cross and life 
eternal, I have not intended or endeavored a complete the- 
ology. I have had in mind that elemental matter of which 
Carlyle was thinking when he wrote : "The thing a man does 
practically lay to heart, and know for certain concerning his 
vital relations to the mysterious Universe, and his duty 
and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for 
him, and creatively determines all the rest. That is his- 
religion." 

As in "The Meaning of Prayer," the Scripture has been 
used for the basis and interpretation of the daily thought. 
The Bible is our supreme record of man's experience with 
faith; it recounts in terms of life faith's sources and results, 
its successes and failures, its servants and its foes. And 
because faith is not a tour de force of intellect alone, but is 
an act of life, prayers have been used for the expression of 
aroused desire and resolution. 

vii 



VU1 



PREFACE 



My indebtedness to many helpers is very great. But to 
my friend and colleague, Professor George Albert Coe, my 
gratitude is so definitely due for his careful reading of the 
manuscript, that the book should not go out lacking an 
acknowledgment. 

H. E. F. 

December 15, 1917. 



Acknowledgments 

Special acknowledgment is gladly made to the following: 
to E. P. Dutton & Company for permission to use prayers 
from "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages" and from "The 
Temple," by W. E. Orchard, D.D. ; to the Rev. Samuel 
McComb and the publishers for permission to quote from "A 
Book of Prayers," Copyright, 1912, Dodd, Mead & Company; 
to the American Unitarian Association for permission to 
draw upon "Prayers," by Theodore Parker ; to the Pilgrim 
Press and the author for permission to use selections from 
"Prayers of the Social Awakening," by Dr. Rauschenbusch ; 
to the Missionary Education Movement for permission to 
make quotations from "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph E. 
Diffendorf er ; to Fleming H. Revell Co., for permission to 
make use of "A Book of Public Prayer," by Henry Ward 
Beecher ; and to the publishers of James Martineau's "Prayers 
in the Congregation and in College," Longmans, Green & Co. 

None of the above material should be reprinted without 
securing permission. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface vii 

I. Faith and Life's Adventure * . . i 

II. Faith a Road to Truth 26 

III. Faith in the Personal God 51 

IV. Belief and Trust 77 

V. Faith's Intellectual Difficulties 103 

VI. Faith's Greatest Obstacle 129 

VII. Faith and Science 158 

VIII. Faith and Moods 184 

IX. Faith in the Earnest God 210 

X. Faith in Christ the Savior: Forgiveness 237 

XI. Faith in Christ' the Savior : Power 263 

XII. The Fellowship of Faith 289 

Scripture Passages Used in the Daily Read- 
ings 316 

Sources of Prayers Used in the Daily Read- 
ings 317 



IX 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

The complex subject of Faith has required an extended 
treatment, which has made the present volume much longer 
than the author's previous works. Every item of expense 
connected with publishing has greatly increased even within 
the past few months, and, to the regret, alike of publisher 
and author, it has been found necessary to charge more for 
this volume than for "The Meaning of Prayer" and "The 
Manhood of the Master." 



CHAPTER I 

Faith and Life's Adventure 

DAILY READINGS 

Discussion about faith generally starts with faith's reason- 
ableness; let us begin with faith's inevitableness. If it were 
possible somehow to live without faith, the whole subject 
might be treated merely as an affair of curious interest. But 
if faith is an unescapable necessity in every human life, then 
we must come to terms with it, understand it, and use it as 
intelligently as we can. There are certain basic elements in 
man which make it impossible to live without faith. Let us 
consider these, as they are suggested in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, which, better than any other book in the Bible, 
presents faith as an unavoidable human attitude. 

First Week, First Day 

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction 
of things not seen. — Heb. n: i. 

As Moffatt translates : "Now faith means we are confident 
of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see." 
When faith is described in such general terms, its necessity 
in human life is evident. Man cannot live without faith, be- 
cause he deals not only with a past which he may know and 
with a present which he can see, but with a future in whose 
possibilities he must believe. A man can no more avoid look- 
ing ahead when he lives his life than he can when he sails 
his boat, and in one case as in the other, his direction is de- 
termined by his thought about what lies before him, his 
"assurance of things hoped for." Now, this future into which 
continually we press our way can never be a matter of de- 
monstrable knowledge. We know only when we arrive, but 
meanwhile we believe; and our knowledge of what is and has 
been is not more necessary to our quest than our faith con- 



[I- 1] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

cerning what is yet to come. As Tennyson sings of faith 
in "The Ancient Sage" : 

"She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst, 
She feels the sun is hid but for a night, 
She spies the summer thro* the winter bud, 
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, 
She hears the lark within the songless egg, 
She finds the fountain where they wail'd 'Mirage* !" 

However much a man may plan, therefore, to live without 
faith, he cannot do it. When one strips himself of all con- 
victions about the future he stops living altogether, and active, 
eager, vigorous manhood is always proportionate to the scope 
and power of reasonable faith. The great spirits of the race 
have had the aspiring, progressive quality which the Scrip- 
ture celebrates : 

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, 
but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and 
having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims 
on the earth. For they that say such things make it 
manifest that they are seeking after a country of their 
own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that coun- 
try from which they went out, they would have had oppor- 
tunity to return. But now they desire a better country, 
that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of 
them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for 
them a city. — Heb. n: 13-16. 

Almighty God, let Thy Spirit breathe upon us to quicken 
in us all humility, all holy desire, all living faith in Thee. When 
we meditate on the Eternal, we dare not think any manner 
of similitude ; yet Thou art most real to us in the worship 
of the heart. When in the strife against sin we receive grace 
to help us in our time of need, then art Thou the. Eternal Rock 
of our salvation. When amid our perplexities and searchings, 
the way of duty is made clear, then art Thou our Everlast- 
ing Light. When amid the storms of life we find peace and 
rest through submission, then art Thou the assured Refuge 
of our souls. So do Thou manifest Thyself unto us, O God! 

Our Heavenly Father, we give Thee humble and hearty 
thanks for all the sacred traditions zvhich have come down 
to us from the past — for the glorious memories of ancient 
days, concerning that Divine light in which men have been 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-2] 

conscious of Thy presence and assured of Thy grace. But 
we ivould not content ourselves with memories. O Thou who 
art not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, mani- 
fest Thyself unto us in a present communion. Reveal Thy- 
self uyito us in the tokens of this passing time. Give us for 
ourselves to feel the authority of Thy law: give us for our- 
selves to realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin: give us for 
ourselves to understand the way of salvation through sacri- 
fice. Teach us, by the Spirit of Christ, the sacredness of 
common duties, the holiness of the ties that bind us to our 
kind, the divinity of the still small voice within that doth 
ever urge us in the way of righteousness. So shall our hearts 
be renewed by faith; so shall we ever live in God. Amen. 
— John Hunter. 

First Week, Second Day 

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go 
out unto a place which he was to receive for an inherit- 
ance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 
By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, 
as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and 
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he 
looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God. — Heb. 11: 8-10. 

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be 
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to 
share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy 
the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for 
he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he 
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he 
endured, as seeing him who is invisible. — Hebl 11: 24-27. 

Man cannot live without faith because his relationship with 
the future is an affair not alone of thought but also of action ; 
life is a continuous adventure into the unknown. Abraham 
and Moses pushing out into experiences whose issue they 
could not foresee are typical of all great lives that have 
adventured for God. "By faith" is the first word necessary 
in every life like Luther's and Wesley's and Carey's. By 
faith John Bright, when his reforms were hard bestead, 
said : "If we can't win as fast as we wish, we know that our 
opponents can't in the long run win at all." By faith Glad- 



[1-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

stone, when the Liberal cause was. defeated, rose undaunted 
in Parliament, and said, "I appeal to time !" and by faith 
every one of us must undertake each plain day's work, if we 
are to do it well. Robert Louis Stevenson said that life is 
"an affair of cavalry/' "a thing to be dashingly used and 
cheerfully hazarded." But so to deal with life demands faith. 
The more one sees what venturesome risks he takes every 
day, what labor and sacrifice he invests in hope of a worthy 
outcome, with what great causes he falls in love until at his 
best he is willing for their sakes to hazard fortune and 
happiness and life itself, the more he sees that the soul of 
robust and serviceable character is faith. 

O God, who hast encompassed us with so much that is dark 
and perplexing, and yet hast set within us light enough to 
walk by; enable us to trust what Thou hast given as sufficient 
for us, and steadfastly refuse to follow aught else ; lest the 
light that is in us become as darkness and we wander from 
the way. May we be loyal to all the truth we know, and seek 
to discharge those duties which lay their commission on our 
conscience; so that we may come at length to perfect light 
in Thee, and find our wills in harmony with Thine. 

Since Thou hast planted our feet in a world so full of chance 
and change that we know not what a day may bring forth, and 
hast curtained every day with night and rounded our little 
lives with sleep; grant that we may use with diligence our 
appointed span of time, working while it is called today, since 
the night cometh when no man can work; having our loins 
girt and our lamps alight, lest the cry at midnight find us 
sleeping and the door fast shut. 

Since we are so feeble, faint, and foolish, leave us not to 
our own devices, not even when we pray Thee to; nor suffer 
us for any care to Thee or for any pain to us to walk our 
own unheeding way. Plant thorns about our feet, touch our 
hearts with fear, give us no rest apart from Thee, lest we 
lose our way and miss the happy gate. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

First Week, Third Day 

Man cannot live without faith because the prime requisite 
in life's adventure is courage, and the sustenance of courage 
is faith. 

4 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-3] 

And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me 
if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David 
and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith sub- 
dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, 
escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made 
strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of 
aliens. Women received their dead by a resurrection: 
and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; 
that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others 
had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of 
bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with 
the sword: they went about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins; 
being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world 
was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains 
and caves, and the holes of the earth. And these all, 
having had witness borne to them through their faith, 
received not the promise, God having provided some bet- 
ter thing concerning us, that apart from us they should 
not be made perfect. — Heb. 11: 32-40. 

When in comparison with men and women of such ad- 
mirable spirit, one thinks of weak personalities, that ravel out 
at the first strain, he sees that the difference lies in courage. 
When a man loses heart he loses everything. Now to keep 
one's heart in the midst of life's stress and to maintain an 
undiscourageable front in the face of its difficulties is not an 
achievement which springs from anything that a laboratory 
can demonstrate or that logic can confirm. It is an achieve- 
ment of faith, 

"The virtue to exist by faith 
As soldiers live by courage." 

Consider this account of Havelock, the great English general : 
"As he sat at dinner with his son on the evening of the 17th, 
his mind appeared for the first and last time to be affected 
with gloomy forebodings, as it dwelt on the probable annihila- 
tion of his brave men in a fruitless attempt to accomplish 
what was beyond their strength. After musing long in deep 
thought, his strong sense of duty and his confidence in the 
justice of his cause restored the buoyancy of his spirit; and 
he exclaimed, 'If the worst comes to the worst, we can but 
die with our swords in our hands !' " No man altogether 



[1-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

escapes the need for such a spirit, and, as with Havelock 
and the Hebrew heroes, confidence in someone, faith in some- 
thing, is that spirit's source. 

O God, who hast sent us to school in this strange life of 
ours, and hast set us tasks which test all our courage, trust, 
and fidelity; may we not spend our days complaining at cir- 
cumstance or fretting at discipline, but give ourselves to 
learn of life and to profit by 'every experience. Make us 
strong to endure. 

We pray that when trials come upon us we may not shirk 
the issue or lose our faith in Thy goodness, but committing 
our souls unto Thee who knowest the way that we take, 
come forth as gold tried in the fire. 

Grant by Thy grace that we may not be found wanting in 
the hour of crisis. When the battle is set, may we know on 
which side we ought to be, and when the day goes hard, 
cowards steal from the field, and heroes fall around the 
standard, may our place be found where the fight is fiercest. 
If we faint, may we not be faithless; if we fall, may it be 
while facing the foe. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

First Week, Fourth Day 

Man cannot live without faith, because the adventure of 
life demands not only courage to achieve but patience to 
endure and wait, and all untroubled patience is founded on 
faith. When the writer to the Hebrews speaks of those 
who "through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 
6: 12), he joins two things that in experience no man suc- 
cessfully can separate. By as much as we need patience, we 
need faith. 

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, 
after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of 
sufferings; partly, being made a gazingstock both by re- 
proaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers 
with them that were so used. For ye both had compas- 
sion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the 
spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for 
yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Cast 
not away therefore your boldness, which hath great 
recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, 

6 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-5] 

that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the 
promise. — Heb. 10: 32-36. 

The most difficult business in the world is waiting. There 
are times in every life when action, however laborious and 
sacrificial, would be an unspeakable relief ; but to sit still 
because necessity constrains us, endeavoring to live out the 
admonition of the psalmist, "Rest in the Lord, and wait 
patiently for him/' is prodigiously difficult. No one can do 
it without some kind of faith. "In your patience," said Jesus, 
"ye shall win your souls" (Luke 21 : 19), but such an achieve- 
ment is no affair of logic or scientific demonstration; it is 
a venture of triumphant faith. The great believers have been 
the unwearied waiters ; faith meant to them not controversial 
opinion, but sustaining power. As another has phrased it, 
"Our faculties of belief were not primarily given to us to 
make orthodoxies and heresies withal; they were given us to 
live by." 

We beseech of Thee, O Lord our God, that Thou wilt 
grant to every one of us in Thy presence, this morning, the 
special mercies which he needs — strength where weakness 
prevails, and patience where courage has failed. Grant, we 
pray Thee, that those who need long-suffering may find them- 
selves strangely upborne and sustained. Grant that those who 
wander in doubt and darkness may feel distilling upon their 
soul the sweet influence of faith. Grant that those who are 
heart-weary, and sick from hope deferred, may find the God 
of all salvation. Confirm goodness in those that are seeking 
it. Restore, we pray Thee, those who have wandered from 
the path of rectitude. Give every one honesty. May all trans- 
gressors of Thy law return to the Shepherd and Bishop of 
their souls with confession of sin, and earnest and sincere 
repentance. Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 

First Week, Fifth Day 

Man cannot live without faith because he exists in a uni- 
verse, the complete explanation of which is forever beyond 
his grasp, so that whatever he thinks about the total meaning 
of creation is fundamentally faith. 

By faith we understand that the worlds have been 

7 



r 



[1-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath 
not been made out of things which appear. — Heb. n: 3. 

Not only is this true, but if we think that there is no God, 
that also is faith; and if we hold that the basic reality is 
physical atoms, that is faith; and whatever anybody believes 
about the origin and destiny of life is faith. When Haeckel 
says that the creator is "Cosmic Ether," and when John says 
that "God is love," they both are making a leap of faith. 
This does not mean that faith can dispense with reason. In 
these studies we shall set ourselves to marshal the ample 
arguments that support man's faith in God. But when the 
utmost that argument can do has been achieved, the finite 
mind, dealing with the infinite reality, is forced to a sally 
of faith, a venture of confidence in Goodness at the heart 
of the world, not opposed to reason but surpassing reason. 
Faith always sees more with her eye than logic can reach 
with her hand. And especially when men come to the highest 
thought of life's meaning and believe in the Christian God, 
they face the fact which the writer to the Hebrews presents : 

And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing 
unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that 
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after 
him. — Heb. 11: 6. 

Indeed, in all stout conviction about the meaning of life 
there is a certain defiant note, refusing to surrender to small 
objections. Cried. Stevenson, "I believe in an ultimate decency 
of things; ay, and if I woke in hell, should still believe it!" 

O Thou Infinite Spirit, who needest no words for man to 
hold his converse with Thee, we would enter into Thy pres- 
ence, we would reverence Thy power, we would worship Thy 
wisdom, we would adore Thy justice, we would be gladdened 
by Thy love, and blessed by our communion with Thee. We 
know that Thou needest no sacrifice at our hands, nor any 
offering at our lips; yet we live in Thy world, we taste Thy 
bounty, we breathe Thine air, and Thy power sustains us, 
Thy justice guides, Thy goodness preserves, and Thy love 
blesses us forever and ever. O Lord, we cannot fail to praise 
Thee, though we cannot praise Thee as we would. We bow 
our faces down before Thee with humble hearts, and in Thy 
presence would warm our spirits for a while, that the better 

8 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [1-6] 

we may be prepared for the duties of life, to endure its trials, 
to bear its crosses, and to triumph in its lasting joys. . . . 

In times of darkness, when men fail before Thee, in days 
when men of high degree are a lie, and those of low degree 
are a vanity, teach us, O Lord, to be true before Thee, not 
a vanity, but soberness and manliness; and may we keep still 
our faith shining in the midst of darkness, the beacon-light 
to guide us over stormy seas to a home and haven at last. 
Father, give us strength for our daily duty, patience for our 
constant or unaccustomed cross, and in every time of trial 
give us the hope that sustains, the faith that wins the victory 
and obtains satisfaction and fulness of joy. Amen. — Theodore 
Parker. 

First Week, Sixth Day 

Man cannot live, lacking faith, because without it life's 
richest experiences go unappropriated. Opportunities for 
friendship lie all about us, but only by trustful self-giving 
can they be enjoyed; chances to serve good causes con- 
tinually beckon us, but one must have faith to try ; superior 
minds offer us their treasures, but to avail oneself of in- 
struction from another involves teachable humility. A man 
without capacity to let himself go out to other men in friendly 
trust or to welcome new illumination on his thought with 
grateful faith would be shut out from the priceless treasures 
of humanity. A certain trustful openheartedness, a willing- 
ness to venture in personal relationship and in attempts at 
service is essential to a rich and fruitful life. And what is 
true of man's relationship with man is true of man's relation- 
ship with God. So Prof. William James, of Harvard, states 
the case: "Just as a man who in a company of gentlemen 
made no advances, asked a warrant for every concession, and 
believed no one's word without proof, would cut himself 
off by such churlishness from all the social rewards that a 
more trusting spirit would earn — so here, one who should 
shut himself up in snarling logicality and try to make the 
gods extort his recognition willy-nilly, or not get it at all, 
might cut himself off forever from his only opportunity of 
making the gods' acquaintance." Wherever in life great 
spiritual values await man's appropriation, only faith can 
appropriate them. 



[1-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of 
entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have 
come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings 
preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hear- 
ing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith 
with them that heard!— Heb. 4: 1, 2. 

O Infinite Source of life and health and joy! the very thought 
of Thee is so wonderful that in this thought we would rest 
and be still. Thou art Beauty and Grace and Truth and 
Power, Thou art the light of every heart that sees Thee, 
the life of every soul that loves Thee, the strength of every 
mind that seeks Thee. From our narrozv and bounded world 
we would pass into Thy greater world. From our petty and 
miserable selves we would escape to Thee, to find in Thee the 

power and the freedom of a larger life We recognize 

Thee in all the deeper experiences of the soul. When the 
conscience utters its warning voice, when the heart is tender 
and we forgive those who have wronged us in word or deed, 
when we feel ourselves upborne above time and place, and 
know ourselves citizens of Thy everlasting Kingdom, we 
realize, O Lord, that these things, while they are in us, are 
not of us. They are Thine, the work of Thy Spirit brooding 
upon our souls. 

Spirit of Holiness and Peace! Search all our motives; try 
the secret places of our souls; set in the light any evil that 
may lurk within, and lead us in the way everlasting. Amen. 
— Samuel McComb. 

First Week, Seventh Day 

Man cannot live without faith, because in life's adventure 
the central problem is building character. Now, character is 
not a product of logic, but of faith in ideals and of sacri- 
ficial devotion to them. What is becomes only the starting 
point of a campaign for what ought to be, and in the prosecu- 
tion of that campaign what ought to be must be believed in 
with passionate intensity. Faith of some sort, therefore, is 
necessarily the dynamic of character ; only limp and ragged 
living is possible without faith; and the greatest characters 
are girded by the most ample faith in God and goodness. 
The writer to the Hebrews saw this intimate relationship 
between quality of faith and quality of life, and challenged 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-7] 

his readers to judge the Christian faith by its consequence 
in character. 

Remember them that had the rule over you, men that 
spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue 
of their life, imitate their faith. — Heb. 13: 7. 

Such are the basic elements in human experience that make 
faith necessary: we deal with a future, about which we must 
think, with reference to which we must act, and adventuring 
into which we need courage and patience; this venture of 
life takes place in a world the meaning of which can be 
grasped only by a leap of faith; and in this venture the best 
treasures of the spirit are obtainable only through open- 
heartedness, and character is possible only to men of resolute 
conviction. Plainly the subject to whose study we are setting 
ourselves is no affair of theoretical interest alone ; it affects 
the deepest issues of life. No words could better summarize 
this vital idea of faith which the Epistle to the Hebrews 
presents than Hartley Coleridge's : 

"Think not the faith by which the just shall live 
Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven, 
Far less a feeling, fond and fugitive, 
A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given. 
It is an affirmation and an act 
That bids eternal truth be present fact." 

How great are the mercies, O Lord our God, which Thou 
hast prepared for all that put their trust in Thee! . . . 
Thou hast comfort for those that are in affliction; Thou hast 
strength for those that are weak; . . . Thou hast all bless- 
ings that are needed, and standest ready to be all things to 
all, and in all. And yet, with bread enough and to spare, with 
raiment abundant, and with all medicine, how many are there 
that go hungry, and naked, and sick, and destitute of all 
things! We desire, O Lord, that Thou wilt, to all Thine other 
mercies, add that gift by which we shall trust in Thee — ■ 
faith that works by love; faith that abides with us; faith 
that transforms material things, and gives them to us in their 
spiritual meanings; faith that illumines the world by a light 
that never sets, that shines brighter than the day, and that 
dears the night quite out of our experience. This is the por- 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Hon that Thou hast provided for thy people. We beseech 
of Thee, grant us this faith, that shall give us victory over 
the world and over ourselves; that shall make us valiant in 
all temptation and bring us off conquerors and more than 
conquerors through Him that loved us. Amen. — Henry Ward 
Beecher. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 



When Donald Hankey, who died in the trenches in the 
Great War, said that "True religion is betting one's life that 
there is a God," he not only gave expression to his own virile 
Christianity, but he gave a good description of all effective 
faith whatsoever. Faith is holding reasonable convictions, 
in realms beyond the reach of final demonstration, and, as 
well, it is thrusting out one's life upon those convictions as 
though they were surely true. Faith is vision plus valor. 

Our study may well begin by recognizing that, as it is 
exercised in the religious life, such faith is the supreme use 
of an attitude which we are employing in every other realm. 
No man can live without vision to see as true what as yet 
he cannot prove, or without valor to act on the basis of his 
insight. Our vocabulary in ordinary relationships, quite as 
much as in religion, is full of words involving faith. I be- 
lieve, I feel sure, I am confident, I venture — such phrases 
express our common attitudes in work and thought. Each 
day we act on reasonable probabilities, hold convictions not 
yet verified, take risks whose outcome we cannot know, and 
trust people whom we have barely met. We may pride our- 
selves that our twentieth century's life is being built on 
scientifically demonstrable knowledge, but a swift review of 
any day's experience shows how indispensable is another at- 
titude, without which our verifiable knowledge would be an 
unused instrument. In order to live we must have insight 
and daring. It is not alone the just who live by faith; lack- 
ing it, there is no real life anywhere. 

To be sure, we may not leap from this general necessity 
of faith to the conclusion that therefore our religious beliefs 
are justified. Many men use faith in business and in social 
life who cannot find their way to convictions about God. 
But our desire to understand faith's meaning is quickened 

12 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

when we see how indispensable a place it holds, how tre- 
mendous an influence it wields, whether it be religiously 
applied or not. All sorts of human enterprise bear witness. 
to its unescapable necessity. Haeckel, the biologist, describ- 
ing science's method, says : "Scientific faith fills the gaps in 
our knowledge of natural laws with temporary hypotheses. ,, 
Lincoln, the statesman, entreating the people, cries : "Let us 
have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us 
to the end dare to do our duty." Stevenson, the invalid, 
trying with fortitude to bear his trial, writes : "Whether on 
the first of January or the thirty-first of December, faith is 
a good word to end on." And the Master states the substance 
of religion in a single phrase: "Have faith in God" (Mark 
ii : 22). Scientific procedure, social welfare, personal quality, 
religion — the applications of our subject are as wide as life- 
Vision and valor are the dynamic forces in all achievement, 
intellectual as well as moral, and as for man's spiritual values 
and satisfactions, "It is faith in something," as Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes put it, "which makes life worth living." 

II 

One major reason for this necessary place of faith in our 
experience is clear. Life is an adventure and adventure always 
demands insight and daring. That "Chinese" Gordon, on his 
hazardous expedition into the Soudan, should be thrown back 
on undiscourageable faith in himself, in the justice of his 
cause, in the bravery of his men, and in God; that he should 
even speak of praying his boats up the Nile, seems to us 
natural ; for some kind of faith is obviously necessary to any 
great adventure. But men often forget that all ordinary 
living is essentially adventurous and that by this fact the 
need of faith is woven into the texture of every human life. 
It is an amazing adventure to be born upon this wandering 
island in the sky and it is an adventure to leave it when death 
calls. To go to school, to make friends, to marry, to rear 
children, to face through life the swift changes of circum- 
stance that no man can certainly predict an hour ahead, these 
are all adventures. Each new day is an hitherto unvisited 
country, which we enter, like Abraham leaving Ur for a 
strange land, "not knowing whither he went" (Heb. n : 8), 
and every New Year we begin a tour of exploration into 

13 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

a twelvemonth where no man's foot has ever walked before. 
If we all love tales of pioneers, it is because from the time 
we are weaned to the time we die, life is pioneering. Of 
course we cannot live by verifiable knowledge only. Imagine 
men, equipped with nothing but powers of logical demonstra- 
tion, starting on such an enterprise as the title of Sebastian 
Cabot's joint stock company suggests: "Merchants Adven- 
turers of England for the discovery of lands, territories, isles 
and seignories, unknown." 

Indeed no knowledge of the sort that our scientific induc- 
tions can achieve ever will take from life this adventurous 
element. Scientific knowledge in these latter decades has 
grown incalculably; yet for all that, every child's life is a 
hazardous experiment, every boy choosing a calling takes his 
chances, every friendship is a risky exploration in the province 
of personality, and all devotion to moral causes is just as 
much a venturesome staking of life on insight and hope as 
it was when Garrison attacked slavery or Livingstone landed 
in Africa. To one who had acquired not only all extant but 
all possible knowledge, as truly as to any man who ever lived, 
life would be full of hazard still. He could not certainly 
know in advance the outcome of a single important decision 
of his life. He could not at any moment tell in what new, 
strange, challenging, or terrific situation the next hour might 
find him. With all his science, he must face each day, as 
Paul faced his journey to Rome, "not knowing the things 
that shall befall me there" (Acts 20: 22). 

The reason for this is obvious. Our systematized knowl- 
edge is the arrangement under laws of the experiences which 
we have already had. It furnishes invaluable aid in guiding the 
experiments and explorations which life continuously forces 
on us. In every enterprise, however, we must use not only 
legs to stand on, but tentacles as well with which to feel our 
way forward — intuitions, insights, hopes, unverified convic- 
tions, faith. We project our life forward as we build a 
cantilever bridge. Part of the structure is solidly bolted and 
thoroughly articulated in a system ; but ever beyond this 
established portion we audaciously thrust out new begin- 
nings in eager expectation that from the other side something 
will come to meet them. Without this no progress ever would 
be possible. 

Every province of life illustrates this necessity of adven- 

14 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

ture. In science, the established body of facts and laws is 
only the civilized community of knowledge from whose 
frontiers new guesses and intuitions start. Says Sir Oliver 
Lodge about the great Newton : "He had an extraordinary 
faculty for guessing correctly, sometimes with no apparent 
data — as for instance, his intuition that the mean density of 
the earth was probably between five and six times that of 
water, -while we now know it is really about five and one 
half/' In personal character, our habits are basic, but our 
ideals in which, despite ourselves, we must believe, are 
pioneers that push out into new territory and call our habits 
after them to conquer the promised land. In social advance, 
some Edmund Burke, statesman of the first magnitude, bas- 
ing his judgment on the established experience of the race, 
can call slavery an incurable evil and say that there is not 
the slightest hope that trade in slaves- can be stopped; and 
yet within eighty-two years the race can feel its way forward 
to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. As for daily busi- 
ness, adventurous daring is there the very nerve of enterprise. 
Says a modern newspaper man : "There are plenty of people 
to do the possible ; you can hire them at forty dollars a 
month. The prizes are for those who perform the impos- 
sible. If a thing can be done, experience and skill can do 
it; if a thing cannot be done, only faith can do it." Great 
in human life is this adventurous element, and, therefore, 
great in human life is the necessity of faith. To chasten and 
discipline, to make reasonable and stable the faiths by which 
we live is a problem unsurpassed in importance for every 
man. 

Ill 

One result of special interest follows from this truth. It 
is commonly suspected that as mankind advances, the func- 
tion of faith proportionately shrinks. It is even supposed that 
the place of faith in human life has sensibly diminished with 
our growing knowledge, and that Matthew Arnold told the 
truth : 

"The sea of faith 
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore 
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. 
But now I only hear 

15 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 
Retreating, to the breath 

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear 
And naked shingles of the world." 

Accordingly by custom we call the mediaeval centuries the 
"Age of Faith." But even a cursory comparison between the 
mediaeval people and ourselves reveals that among the many 
differences that distinguish us from them, none is more marked 
than the diversity and range of our faiths. One considers 
in surprise the things which they did not believe. That the 
world would ever grow much better, that social abuses like 
political tyranny and slavery could be radically changed, that 
man could ever master nature by his inventions until her 
mighty forces were his servants, that the whole race could 
be reached for Christ, that war could be abolished and human 
brotherhood in some fair degree established, that common 
men could be trusted with responsibility for their own gov- 
ernment or with freedom to worship God according to the 
dictates of their own consciences — none of these things did 
the mediaeval folk believe. One of the most distinguishing 
characteristics of the so-called "Age of Faith" was its lack 
of faith. It lived in a static world ; it was poor in pos- 
sibilities except in heaven ; it pitiably lacked those most cer- 
tain signs of vital faith, the open mind eager for new truth 
and the ardent, vigorous life seeking new conquests. In 
comparison with such an age our generation's faiths are rich 
and manifold. To call our time an "Age of Doubt" be- 
cause of its free spirit of critical inquiry, is seriously to mis- 
understand its major drift. Bunyan's Pilgrim found Doubt- 
ing Castle kept by Giant Despair and his wife Diffidence and 
in any Doubting Castle these two always dwell. But who, 
considering our generation's life as a whole, would call it 
diffident or desperate? It is rather robust and confident; its 
social faiths, at least, are unprecedented in their sweep and 
certainty. Even the Great War is the occasion of such 
organized faith in a federated and fraternal world as man- 
kind has never entertained before. 

The truth is that with the progress of the race the adven- 
ture of • life is elevated and enlarged, and in consequence 
faith grows not less but more necessary. The faiths of a 
savage are meager compared with a modern man's. The 

16 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

Australian bushman never dreams of laboring for social ideals 
even a few years ahead. What can he know of those superb 
faiths in economic justice and international brotherhood, 
which even in the face of overwhelming difficulty, master 
the best of modern men? The primitive mind was not 
curious enough to wonder whether the sun that rises in the 
morning was the same that set the night before. What could 
such a mind understand of modern science's faith in the uni- 
versal regularity of law? Put a Moro head hunter beside 
Mr. Edison, and see how incalculable the difference between 
them, not simply in their knowledge, but in their faith as to 
what it is possible for humanity to do with nature ! Or put 
a fetish worshipper from Africa beside Phillips Brooks and 
compare the faith of the one in his idol with the faith of the 
other in God. Faith does not dwindle as wisdom grows ; 
vision and valor are not less important. The difference be- 
tween the twentieth century man and the savage is quite as 
much in the scope and quality of their faith as in the range 
and certainty of their knowledge. 

Faith, therefore is not a transient element in human life, to 
be evicted by growing science. For whatever life may know, 
life is adventure ; and as the adventure widens its horizons, 
the demand for faith is correspondingly increased. If one 
tries to imagine the world with all faith gone — knowledge 
supposedly having usurped its place — he must conceive a 
world where no conscious life and effort remain at all. 
Take trust in testimony away from courts of law, and un- 
sure experiments from the physician's practice ; refuse the 
teacher his confidence in growing minds and the business man 
his right to ventures that involve uncertainty; abstract from 
civic reforms all faith in a better future, from science all 
unproved postulates, from society all mutual trust and from 
religion all belief in the Unseen, and life would become an 
'insane sand heap." A man who tries to live without faith 
will die of inertia. A society that makes the attempt will be 
paralyzed within an hour. The question is not whether or 
no we shall live by faith. The question is rather — By what 
faiths shall we live? What range and depth and quality shall 
they have? How reasonable and how assured shall they be? 

IV 

Among all the faiths which mankind has cherished and by 

17 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

which it has been helped in life's adventure, none have been 
more universally and more passionately held than those asso- 
ciated with religion. In the daring experiment of living, men 
naturally have sought by faith interpretation not only of 
life's details but of life itself — its origin, its meaning, and 
its destiny. Australian bushmen, unable to count above four 
on their fingers, have been heard discussing in their huts at 
night whence they came, whither they go, and who the gods 
are anyway. And when one turns to modern manhood in its 
finest exhibitions of intelligence and character, he sees that 
Professor Ladd, of Yale, speaks truly: "The call of the 
world of men today, which is most insistent and most intense, 
if not most loud and clamorous, is the call for a rehabilitation 
of religious faith." 

For it does make a prodigious difference to the spirit of 
our adventure in this world, whether we think that God is 
good or on the other hand see the universe as Carlyle's 
terrific figure pictures it — "one huge, dead, immeasurable 
Steam-engine, rolling on, in its dead indifference, to grind me 
limb from limb." It does make a difference of quite in- 
calculable magnitude whether we think that our minds and 
characters are an evanescent product of finely wrought matter 
which alone is real and permanent, or on the contrary with 
John believe that "Now are we children of God and it is 
not yet made manifest what we shall be" (i John 3:2). 

How great a difference in life's adventure religious faith 
does make is better set forth by concrete example than by 
abstract argument. On the one side, how radiant the spirit 
of the venture as the New Testament depicts it ! The stern, 
appealing love of God behind life, his good purpose through 
it, his victory ahead of it, and man a fellow worker, called 
into an unfinished world to bear a hand with God in its com- 
pletion — here is a game that indeed is worth the candle. 
On the other side is Bertrand Russell's candid disclosure 
of the consequences of his own scepticism : "Brief and power- 
less is man's life ; on him and all his race the slow sure doom 
falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of 
destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; 
for Man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow him- 
self to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only 
to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that 
ennoble his little day — proudly defiant of the irresistible 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

forces that tolerate for a moment his knowledge and his 
condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, 
the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the 
trampling march of unconscious power." 

Man's life, interpreted and motived by religious faith, is 
glorious, but shorn of faith's interpretations life loses its high- 
est meaning and its noblest hopes. Let us make this state- 
ment's truth convincing in detail. 

When faith in God goes, man the thinker loses his great- 
est thought. Man's mind has ranged the universe, has woven 
atoms and stars into a texture of law; his conquering thoughts 
ride out into every unknown province of which they hear. 
But among all the ideas on which the mind of man has taken 
hold, incomparably the greatest is the idea of God. In sheer 
weight and range no other thought of man compares with 
that. Amid the crash of stars, the reign of law, the vicissi- 
tudes of human history, and the griefs that drive their plough- 
shares into human hearts, to gather up all existence into 
spiritual unity and to believe in God, is the sublimest venture 
of the human mind. 

When faith in God goes, man the worker loses his greatest 
motive. Man masters nature until the forces that used to scare 
him now obey; in society he labors tirelessly that his chil- 
dren may have a better world. Wars come, destroying the 
achievements of ages; yet when war is over, man rebuilds 
his cities, recreates his commerce, dreams again his human 
brotherhoods, and toils on. Many motives, deep and shallow, 
fine and coarse, have sustained him in this tireless work, but 
when one seeks the fountain of profoundest hope in man- 
kind's toil he finds it in religious faith. To believe that we 
do not stand alone, hopelessly pitted against the dead apathy 
of cosmic forces which in the end will crush us in some solar 
wreck and bring our work to naught ; to believe that we are 
fellow-laborers with God, our human purposes comprehended 
in a Purpose; God behind us, within us, ahead of us — this 
incomparably has been the master-faith in man's greatest 
w T ork. 

When faith in God goes, man the sinner loses his strong- 
est help. For man is a sinner. He tears his spiritual heritage 
to shreds in licentiousness and drink. He wallows in vice, 
wins by cruelty, violates love, is treacherous to trust. His 
sins clothe the world in lamentation. Yet in him is a protest 

19 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

that he cannot stifle. He is the only creature whom we 
know whose nature is divided against itself. He hates his 
sin even while he commits it. He repents, tries again, falls, 
rises, stumbles on — and in all his best hours cries out for 
saviorhood. No message short of religion has ever met 
man's need in this estate. That God himself is pledged to 
the victory of righteousness in men and in the world, that 
he cares, forgives, enters into man's struggle with trans- 
forming power, and crowns the long endeavor with tri- 
umphant character — such faith alone has been great enough 
to meet the needs of man the sinner. 

When faith in God goes, man the sufferer loses his securest 
refuge. One who has walked with families through long 
illnesses where desperate prayers rise like a fountain day 
and night, who has seen strong men break down in health 
or lose the fortune of a lifetime, who has stood at children's 
graves and heard mothers cry, "How empty are my arms !" 
does not need long explication of life's tragic suffering. The 
staggering blows shatter the hopes of good and bad alike. 
Whether one's house be built on rock or sand, on both, as 
Jesus said, the rains descend and the floods come and the 
winds blow. In this experience of crushing trouble nothing 
but religious faith has been able to save men from despair 
or from stoical endurance of their fate. To face the loom 
of life and hopefully to lay oneself upon it, as though the 
dark threads were as necessary in the pattern as the light 
ones are, we must believe that there is a purpose running 
through the stern, forbidding process. What men have 
needed most of all in suffering, is not to know the explanation, 
but to know that there is an explanation. And religious faith 
alone gives confidence that human tragedy is not the mean- 
ingless sport of physical forces, making our life what Voltaire 
called it, "a bad joke," but is rather a school of discipline, 
the explanation of whose mysteries is in the heart of God. 
No one who has lived deeply can ever call such faith a "mat- 
ter of words and names." To multitudes it is a matter of 
life and death. 

When faith in God goes, man the lover loses his fairest 
vision. When we say our worst about mankind, this redeem- 
ing truth remains, that each of us has some one for whose 
sake he willingly would die. The very love lyrics of the race 
are proof of this human quality, from homely folk songs like 

20 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

"John Anderson, My Jo, John" to great poetry like Mrs 
Brownings sonnets. We call them secular, but they are 
ineffably sacred. And when one seeks the faith that has made 
these loves of men radiant with an illumination which man 
alone cannot create, he finds it in religion. Love is not a 
transient fragrance from matter finely organized-so men 
have dared believe ; love is of kin with the Eternal, has there 
its source and ground and destiny; love is the very substance 
ot reality. God is love, and he that abideth in love, abideth 
in God, and God abideth in him" (i John 4: 16). Man the 
lover is bereft of his finest insight and love's inner glory 
has departed, when that faith has gone. 

When faith in God goes, man the mortal loses his only 
hope Man s nature, like a lighthouse, combines two elements 
At the foundation of the beacon all is stone; as one lifts 
his eyes all is stone still; but at the top is something new and 
wonderful. It is the thing for which the rock was piled 
Its laws are not the laws of stone nor are its ways the same 
f 01 -while the stolid rock stands fast, this miracle of light 
with speed incredible hurls itself out across the sea. Two 
worlds are here, the one cold and stationary, the other full 
of the marvel and mystery of fire. So man has in him a 
miracle which he cannot explain; he "feels that he is greater 
than he knows ; and he never has been able to believe that 
the mystery of spirit was given him in vain, had no reality 
from which it came, and no future beyond death. The finest 
thing ever said of Columbus is a remark of his own country- 
man _ ihe instinct of an unknown continent burned in him" 
I hat is the secret of Columbus' greatness. All the arguments 
I 'll u e a "T- pted t0 convince the doubters were but 
afterthoughts of this; all the labors by which he endeavored 
to make good his hopes were but its consequence. And if we 
ask of man why so universally he has believed in life to 
come, the answer leaps not superficially from the mind, but 
out of the basic intuitions of man's life. We know that 
something is now ours which ought not to die; the instinct 
ot an unknown continent burns in us. But all the hopes 
the motives, the horizons that immortality has given man 

fees ffrever ^ dePHrtS - In * g ° dksS ™ rld ™° 

One therefore, who is facing loss of faith may not regard 

it as a light affair. To be sure, some denials of religion fven 



[I-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

a Christian must respect. Huxley, for example, at the death 
of his little boy, wanting to believe in immortality as only 
a father can whose son lies dead, yet, for all that, disbeliev- 
ing, wrote to Charles Kingsley, "I have searched over the 
grounds of my belief, and if wife and child and name and 
fame were all to be lost to me one after another as the 
penalty, still I will not lie." One respects that. When George 
John Romanes turned his back for a while on the Christian 
faith, he wrote out of his agnosticism, "When at times I 
think, as think at times I must, of the appalling contrast be- 
tween the hallowed glory of that creed which once was 
mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it — 
at such tinies I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the 
sharpest pang of which my nature is susceptible." One re- 
spects that. But some discard religion from their life's 
adventure with no such serious understanding of the import 
of their denial. They are pert disbelievers. They toss faith 
facilely aside in a light mood. Such frivolous sceptics indict 
their own intelligence. Whoever discards religious faith 
should appoint a day of mourning for his soul, and put on 
sackcloth and ashes. He must take from his life the greatest 
thought that man the thinker ever had, the finest faith that 
man the worker ever leaned upon, the surest help that man 
the sinner ever found, the strongest reliance that man the 
sufferer ever trusted in, the loftiest vision that man the 
lover ever saw, and the only hope that man the mortal ever 
had. So he must deny his faith in God. Before one thus 
leaves himself bereft of the faith that makes life's adventure 
most worth while he well may do what Carlyle, under the 
figure of Teufelsdrockh, says that he did in his time of 
doubt: "In the silent night-watches, still darker in his heart 
than over sky and earth, ru has cast himself before the All- 
seeing, and with audible prayers cried vehemently for Light." 

V 

If minimizing the importance of religious faith is unin- 
telligent, so is avoiding some sort of decision about religious 
faith impossible. Most of those into whose hands these 
studies fall will grant readily faith's incalculable importance. 
Some, however, will be not helped but plunged into deeper 
trouble by their consent. For they feel themselves unable 

22 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

to decide about a matter which they acknowledge to be the 
most important in the world. Asked whether they believe 
in God, they would reply with one of Victor Hugo's charac- 
ters, "Yes — No — Sometimes." They grant that to be steadily 
assured of God would be an invaluable boon, but for them- 
selves, how can they balance the opposing arguments and 
find their way to confidence? All our studies are intended 
for the help of such, but at the beginning one urgent truth 
may well be plainly put. However undecided they may appear, 
men cannot altogether avoid decision on the main matters 
of religion. Life will not let them. For while the mind may 
hold itself suspended between alternatives, the adventure of 
life goes on, and men inevitably tend to live either as though 
the Christian God were real or as though he were not. 

Some questions allow a complete postponement of decision. 
As to which of several theories about the Northern Lights 
may be true, a man can hold his judgment in entire suspense/ 
Life does not require from him any action that depends on 
what he thinks of the Aurora Borealis ; and whether a man 
think one thing or another, no conceivable change would be 
the consequence in anything he said or did. But there is 
another kind of question, where, however much the mind may 
waver between opinions and may resolve on indecision, life 
itself compels decision. A man cannot really be agnostic 
and neutral on a question like the moral law of sexual purity, 
for, by an irrevocable necessity, he has to act one way or an- 
other. He may stop thinking, but he cannot stop living. With 
tremendous urgency the adventure of life insistently goes on, 
and it never pauses for any man to make up his mind on 
any question. Therefore while a man may theoretically sus- 
pend his judgment as to the requirements of the moral law, 
his life will be a loud, convincing advertisement to all who 
know him that he has vitally decided. A man can avoid mak- 
ing up his mind, but he cannot avoid making up his life. 

Quite as truly, though, it may be, not quite as obviously, 
religious questions belong to this second class. Not all ques- 
tions that are called religious belong there. With fatal petti- 
ness religious men have reduced the great faiths to technicali- 
ties and some beliefs called religious a man may hold or 
not, with utter indifference to anything he is or does. But 
on the basic attitudes of religion such as we have just re- 
hearsed, a man cannot be completely neutral, no matter how 

23 



[f-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

he tries. Bernard Shaw's remark, "What a man believes may- 
be ascertained not from his creed, but from the assumptions 
on which he habitually acts," should be .taken to heart by 
any one trying to remain religiously neutral. For one cannot 
by any possibility avoid "assumptions on which he habitually 
acts." He tends to undertake social service either as con- 
fident cooperation with God's purpose or as an endeavor to 
make one corner of an unpurposed world as decent as pos- 
sible. He tends to follow his ideals, either as the voice of 
God calling him upward, or as the work of natural selection, 
adjusting him to a temporary environment. He tends to face 
suffering either hopefully as a school of moral discipline, in 
a world presided over by a Father, or grimly as a hardship 
in which there is no meaning. He tends to face death either 
as the supreme adventure, full of boundless hope, or as a 
final exit that leads nowhere. He may never consciously 
formulate his ideas on any of these matters, he may main- 
tain an intellectual agnosticism, genuine and complete, but 
his living subtly involves the confession of some faith. "A 
man's action," said Emerson, "is only the picture-book of his 
creed." And the more thoughtful he is, the more he will 
be aware of that unescapable tendency to confess in his liv- 
ing an inward faith about life. 

One practical result of this urgent truth is too frequently 
seen to be doubtful. Those who in religion do not decide, 
thereby decide against religion. Religious faith is a positive 
achievement, and he who does not deliberately choose it, 
loses it. A man who, rowing down Niagara River, debates 
within himself whether or not he will stop at Buffalo, and 
who cannot decide, thereby has decided. His irresolution has 
not for a moment interfered with the steady flow of the 
river, and if he but debate long enough concerning his stop 
at Buffalo, he will awake to discover that he has finally 
decided not to stop there. As much beyond the control of 
man's volition is the steady flow of life. It pauses for no 
man's indecision, and if one is irresolute about any positive, 
aspiring faith in any realm, his indecisiveness is decision of 
a most final sort. 

This, then, is the summary of the matter. Life is a great 
adventure in which faith is indispensable ; in this adventure 
faith in God presents the issues of transcendent import; and 
on these issues life itself continuously compels decision. Out 

24 



FAITH AND LIFE'S ADVENTURE [I-c] 

obligation is obvious — since willy-nilly the decision must be 
made — to make it consciously, to reach it by reason, not by 
chance, by thinking, not by drifting. If a man is to be 
irreligious, let him at least know why, and not slip into this 
estate, as most irreligious men do, by careless living and 
frivolous thought. If a man is to be religious, let him have 
reason for his choice;, let his faith be founded not on 
credulity and chance, but on real experience and reasonable 
thought. So his faith shall be good not only for domestic 
consumption, but for export too — clear in his own mind and 
convincing to his friends. The forms of thought shift with 
the centuries and old situations cannot be repeated in detail, 
but one crisis in its essential meaning is perennial: "Elijah 
came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limp- 
ing between the two sides? if Jehovah be God follow him; 
but if Baal then follow him" (i Kings 18: 21). 



25 



CHAPTER II 

Faith a Road to Truth 

DAILY READINGS 

Many minds are prevented from even a fair consideration 
of religious faith by prejudices which spring, not from rea- 
soned argument, but from practical experience. They are 
biased before argument has begun ; they feel that faith means 
credulity, and that religious faith in particular is a«surrender 
of reason. Before we positively present faith as an indis- 
pensable means of dealing with 'reality in any realm, let us, 
in the daily readings, consider some of the practical experi- 
ences and attitudes that thus prejudice men against religion. 

Second Week, First Day 

Many men are biased in advance by the unwise treatment 
to which in their childhood they were subjected. Paul pic- 
tures the home life of Timothy as ideal : 

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a 
pure conscience, how unceasing is my remembrance of 
thee in my supplications, night and day longing to see 
thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with 
joy; having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is 
in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and 
thy mother Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also. 
—II Tim. i : 3-5. 

"Unfeigned faith" is often thus a family heritage, handed 
down by vital contagion. But in many homes religion is 
not thus beautifully presented to the children; it is a hard 
and rigorous affair of dogma and restraint. "Oh, why," said 
a young professional man, whom Professor Coe quotes, "why 
did my parents try to equip me with a doctrinal system in 
childhood ? I supposed that the whole system must be be- 
lieved on pain of losing my religion altogether. And so, when 

26 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-2] 

I began to doubt some points, I felt obliged to throw all 
overboard. I have found my way back to positive religion, 
but by what a long and bitter struggle!" If, however, one 
has been so unfortunate as to be hardened in youth by unwise 
training, is it reasonable on that account forever to shut him- 
self out from the most glorious experience of man? This 
complaint about mistreatment in youth is often an excuse, 
not a reason for irreligion. Says Phillips Brooks : "I have 
grown familiar to weariness with the self-excuse of men 
who say, 'Oh, if I had not had the terrors of the law so 
preached to me when I was a boy, if I had not been so 
confronted with the woes of hell and the awfulness of the 
judgment day, I should have been religious long ago/ My 
friends, I think I never hear a meaner or a falser speech 
than that. Men may believe it when they say it — I suppose 
they do — but it is not true. It is unmanly, I think. It is 
throwing on their teaching and their teachers, or their fathers 
and their mothers, the fault which belongs to their own 
neglect, because they have never taken up the earnest fight 
with sin and sought through every obstacle for truth and 
God. It has the essential vice of dogmatism about it, for it 
claims that a different view of God would have done for 
them that which no view of God can do, that which must 
be done, under any system, any teaching, by humility and 
penitence and struggle and self-sacrifice. Without these no 
teaching saves the soul. With these, under any teaching, 
the soul must find its Father." 

O Thou, who didst lay the foundations of the earth amid 
the singing of the morning stars and the joyful shouts of 
the sons of God, lift up our little life into Thy gladness. 
Out of Thee, as out of an overflowing fountain of Love, 
wells forth eternally a stream of blessing upon every crea- 
ture Thou hast made. If we have thought that Thou didst 
call into being this universe in order to win praise and honor 
for Thyself, rebuke the vain fancies of our foolish minds 
and show us that Thy glory is the joy of giving. We can 
give Thee nothing of our own. All that we have is Thine. 
Oh, then, help us to glorify Thee by striving to be like Thee. 
Make us just and pure and good as Thou art. May we be 
partakers of the Divine Nature, so that all that is truly 
human in us may be deepened, purified, and strengthened. 

27 



[II-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

And so may we be witnesses for Thee, lights of the world, 
reflecting Thy light. 

Help us to make religion a thing so beautiful that all men 
may be won to surrender to its power. Let us manifest in 
our lives its sweetness and excellency, its free and ennobling 
spirit. Forbid that we should go up and down the. world 
with melancholy looks and dejected visage, lest we should 
repel men from entering Thy Kingdom. Rather, may we 
walk in the freedom and joy of faith, and with Thy new 
song in our mouths, so that men looking on us may learn 
to trust and to love Thee. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Second Week, Second Day 

Many men 'are prejudiced against religion during their 
youthful period of revolt against authority. Listen to an 
ancient father talking with his sons : 

Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, 

And attend to know understanding: 

For I give you good doctrine; 

Forsake ye not my law. 

For I was a son unto my father, 

Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 

And he taught me, and said unto me: 

Let thy heart retain my words; 

Keep my commandments, and live; 

Get wisdom, get understanding; 

Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth; 

Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee ; 

Love her, and she will keep thee. 

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; 

Yea, with all thy getting get understanding. 

Exalt her, and she will promote thee; 

She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. 

She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace; 

A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee. 

— Prov. 4: 1-9. 

No father can read this urgent, anxious plea without under- 
standing the reason for its solicitude. Every boy comes to 
the time when he breaks away from parental authority and 
begins to take his life into his own hands. It is one of youth's 
great crises, and the spirit of it is sometimes harsh and 
rebellious. So Carlyle describes his own experience : "Such 

28 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-3I 

transitions are ever full of pain : thus the Eagle when he 
moults is sickly; and, to attain his new beak, must harshly 
dash-off the old one upon rocks." For religious faith this 
period of life is always critical. Stevenson in his revolt, 
when he called respectability "the deadliest gag and wet- 
blanket that can be laid on man," also became, as he said, 
"a youthful atheist." How many have traveled that road 
and stopped in the negation ! Stevenson did not stop, and 
years afterward wrote of his progress : "Because I have 
reached Paris, I am not ashamed of having passed through 
Newhaven and Dieppe." Surely if anyone has been "a youth- 
ful atheist," it was an experience to be "passed through." 

O God, we turn to Thee in the faith that Thou dost under- 
stand and art very merciful. Some of us are not sure con- 
cerning Thee ; not sure what Thou art; not sure that Thou 
art at all. Yet there is something at work behind our minds, 
in times of stillness we hear it, like a distant song; there 
is something in the sky at evening-time ; something in the 
face of man. We feel that round our incompleteness Hows 
Thy greatness, round our restlessness Thy rest. Yet this is 
not enough. 

We want a heart to speak to, a heart that understands; a 
friend to whom we can turn, a breast on which we may lean. 
O that we could find Thee! Yet could we ever think these 
things unless Thou hadst inspired us, could we ever want 
these things unless Thou Thyself wert very near? 

Some of us know full well; but we are sore afraid. We 
dare not yield ourselves to Thee, for we fear what that might 
mean. Our foolish freedom, our feeble pleasures, our fatal 
self-indulgence suffice to hold us back from. Thee, though 
Thou art our very life, and we so sick and needing Thee. 
Our freedom has proved false, our pleasures have long since 
lost their zest, our sins, oh how we hate them! 

Come and deliver us, for we have lost all hope in ourselves. 
Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Second Week, Third Day 

Some men — often the precocious, clever ones — are biased 
against religion because in youth they accepted an immature 
philosophy of life and have never changed it. The crust 
forms too soon on some minds, and if it forms during the 

29 



£II- 3 ] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

period of youthful revolt, they are definitely prejudiced 
against religious truth. The difference between such folk 
and the great believers is not that the believers had no 
doubts, but that they did not fix their final thought of life 
until more mature experience had come. They fulfilled the 
admonition of a wise father to keep up a tireless search for 
truth : 

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, 

And lay up my commandments with thee; 

So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, 

And apply thy heart to understanding; 

Yea, if thou cry after discernment, 

And lift up thy voice for understanding; 

If thou seek her as silver, 

And search for her as for hid treasures: 

Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, 

And find the knowledge of God. 

— Prov. 2: 1-5. 

Mrs. Charles Kingsley, for example, says of her husband 
that at twenty "He was full of religious doubts ; and his 
face, with its unsatisfied, hungering, and at times defiant 
look, bore witness to the state of his mind." At twenty-one 
Kingsley himself wrote : "You believe that you have a sus- 
taining Hand to guide you along that path, an Invisible 
Protection and an unerring Guide. I, alas ! have no stay 
for my weary steps, but that same abused and stupefied rea- 
son which has stumbled and wandered, and betrayed me a 
thousand times ere now, and is every moment ready to faint 
and to give up the unequal struggle." If Kingsley had framed 
his final philosophy then, what a loss to the world of an 
inspiring life transfigured by Christian faith! He cried after 
discernment, lifted up his voice for understanding, and he 
found the knowledge of God. Many a man ought to revise 
in the light of mature experience and thought a hasty irreli- 
gious guess at life's meaning which he made in youth. 

O Father, we turn to Thee because we are sore vexed with 
our own thoughts. Our minds plague us with questionings 
we cannot answer; we are driven to voyage on strange seas 
of thought alone. Dost Thou disturb our minds with endless 
questioning, yet keep the answers hidden in Thy heart, so 

30 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-4] 

that away from Thee we should always be perplexed, and by 
thoughts derived from Thee be ever drawn to Theef Surely, 
our God, it must be so. 

But still more bitter and humbling, O Father, is our experi- 
ence of failure, so frequent, tragic, and unpardonable. We 
have struggled on in vain, resolves are broken ere they pass 
our lips; we can see no hope of better things, we can never 
forgive ourselves; and after all our prayers our need remains 
and our sense of coming short but deepens. Yet, at least 
we know that we have failed, and how, if something higher 
than ourselves were not at work within? 

Our desperate desires have driven us at last to Thee, con- 
scious now, after all vain effort, that it is Thyself alone can 
satisfy, and now at peace to know that Thou it is who art 
desired, because Thou it is who dost desire within us. Be- 
yond our need reveal Thyself, its cause and cure; in all desire 
teach us to discern Thy drawing near. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Second Week, Fourth Day 

Men are often prejudiced against religion because the 
churches which they happened to attend in youth urged on 
them an irrational faith. Some men never recover from the 
idea that all religion everywhere must always be the same 
kind of religion against which in youth their good sense 
rose in revolt; they are in perpetual rebellion against reli- 
gion as it was when they broke with it a generation ago. 
But if one thing more than another grows, expands, be- 
comes in the intelligent and pure increasingly pure and in- 
telligent, it is religion. 

Consider an early Hebrew idea of God: 

And it came to pass on the way at the lodging-place, 
that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. Then 
Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, 
and cast it at his feet; and she said, Surely a bridegroom 
of blood art thou to me. So he let him alone. Then she 
said, A bridegroom of blood art thou, because of the 
circumcision. — Exodus 4: 24-26. 

Over against so abhorrent a picture of a deity who would 
have committed murder, had not a mother swiftly circumcised 
her son, consider a later thought of God : 

31 



[II-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and 
one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety 
and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which 
goeth astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say 
unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety 
and nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not 
the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of 
these little ones should perish. — Matt. 18: 12-14. 

So religion grows with man's capacity to receive higher, 
finer revelations of the divine. And in no age of the world 
has so great a change passed over the intellectual framework 
of faith as in the generation just gone. To live in protest 
against forms of belief a generation old is fighting men of 
straw; the vanguard of religious thought and life has pushed 
ahead many a mile beyond the^point of such attack. Men 
who threw away the living water of the Gospel because they 
disliked the water-buckets in which their boyhood churches 
presented it, are living spiritually thirsty lives when there 
is no reasonable need of their doing so. There is many 
?n unbeliever with a "God-shaped blank" in his heart, who 
could be a confident and joyful believer if he only knew what 
religion means to men of faith today. 

O God, who hast formed all hearts to love Thee, made all 
ways to lead to Thy face, created all desire to be unsatisfied 
save in Thee; with great compassion look upon us gathered 
here. Our presence is our prayer, our need the only plea we 
dare to claim, Thy purposes the one assurance we possess. 

Some of us are very confused; we do not know why we 
were ever born, for what end we should live, which way we 
should take. But we_ are willing to be guided. Take our 
trembling hands in Thine, and lead us on. 

Some of us are sore within. We long for love and friend- 
ship, but we care for no one and we feel that no one cares 
for us. We are misunderstood, we are lonely, we have been 
disappointed, we have lost our faith in man and our faith 
in life. Wilt Thou not let us love Thee who first loved us? 

Some of us are vexed with passions that affright us; to 
yield to them would mean disaster, to restrain them is beyond 
our power, and nothing earth contains exhausts their 
vehemence or satisfies their fierce desire. 

32 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-5] 

And so because there is no answer, no end or satisfaction 
in ourselves; and because we are what we are, and yet long 
to be so different; we believe Thou art, and that Thou dost 
understand us. By faith we feel after Thee, through love 
we find the way, in hope we bring ourselves to Thee. Amen. 
— W. E. Orchard. 

Second Week, Fifth Day . 

Many minds are prejudiced against religion because, hav- 
ing gone so far as to feel the credulity of religious belief, 
they have never gone further and seen the credulity of reli- 
gious unbelief. Irreligion implies a creed just as surely as 
religion does ; and many a man's return to faith has begun 
when his faculties of doubt, which hitherto had been used 
only against belief in God, became active against belief in 
no-God. Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, with his characteristic 
vividness and exaggeration, narrates such an experience : "I 
never read a line of Christian apologetics. I read as little 
as I can of them now. It was Huxley and Herbert Spencer 
and Bradlaugh who brought me back to orthodox theology. 
They sowed in my mind my first wild doubts of doubt. Our 
grandmothers were quite right when they said that Tom 
Paine and the free-thinkers unsettled the mind. They do. 
-They unsettled mine horribly. The rationalist made me 
question whether reason was of any use whatever; and when 
I had finished Herbert Spencer I had got as far as doubting 
(for the first time) whether evolution had occurred at all. 
As I laid down the last of Colonel Ingersoll's atheistic lec- 
tures the dreadful thought broke across my mind, 'Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian/ I was in a desperate 
way." Lest Mr. Chesterton's whimsicality may hide the 
seriousness of such an experience, we may add that Robert 
Louis Stevenson's first break with his "youthful atheism" 
came when, under the influence of Professor Fleeming Jen- 
kin, he too began to have his "first wild doubts of doubt." 
He began thinking, as he says, that "certainly the church was 
not right, but certainly not the anti-church either." Many 
a man has played unfairly with his doubts ; he has used them 
against religion, but not against irreligion. When he is 
thorough with his doubts he may join the many who under- 
stand what the apostle meant when he wrote to Timothy: 

33 



[II-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

O Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee, 
turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions 
of the knowledge which is falsely so called; which some 
professing have erred concerning the faith. 

Grace be with you. — i Tim. 6: 20, 21. 

O God, too near to be found, too simple to be conceived, 
too good to be believed; help us to trust, not in our knowledge 
of Thee, but in Thy knowledge of us; to be certain of Thee, 
not because we feel our thoughts of Thee are true, but be- 
cause we know how far Thou dost transcend them. May 
we not be anxious to discern Thy will, but content only with 
desire to do it; may we not strain our minds to understand 
Thy nature, but yield ourselves and live our lives only to 
express Thee. 

Shew us how foolish it is to doubt Thee, since Thou Thy- 
self dost set the questions which disturb us; reveal our un- 
belief to be faith fretting at its outworn form. Be gracious 
when we are tempted to cease from moral strife: reveal what 
it is that struggles in us. Before we tire of mental search 
enable us to see that it was not ourselves but Thy call which 
stirred our souls. , 

Turn us back from our voyages of thought to that which 
sent us forth. Teach us to trust not to cleverness or learn- 
ing, but to that inward faith which can never be denied. 
Lead us out of confusion to simplicity. Call us back from 
wandering without to find Thee at home within. Amen. — 
W. E. Orchard. 

Second Week, Sixth Day 

Many men are biased in favor of their habitual doubt be- 
cause they do not see that positive faith is the only normal 
estate of man. We live not by the things of which we are 
uncertain, but by the things which we verily believe. Colum- 
bus doubted many of the old views in geography, but these 
negations did not make him great; his greatness sprang from 
the positive beliefs which he confidently held and on which 
he launched his splendid adventure. Goethe is right when 
he makes Mephistopheles, his devil, say, "I am the spirit of 
negation," for negation, save as it paves the way for positive 
conviction, always bedevils life. The psalmist reveals the 
ideal experience for every doubter. 

34 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-6] 

First, uncertainty: 

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; 
My steps had well nigh slipped. 
For I, was envious at the arrogant, 
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

—Psalm 73: 2, 3. 

Then vision: 

When I thought how I might know this, 
It was too painful for me; 
Until I went into the sanctuary of God, 
And considered their latter end. 

— Psalm 73: 16, 17. 

Then, positive assurance: 

Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, 
And afterward receive me to glory. 
Whom have I in heaven but thee? 

And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. 
My flesh and my heart faileth; 

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for 
ever. — Psalm 73: 24-26. 

Doubt, therefore, does have real value in life; it clears 
away rubbish and stimulates search for truth; but it has no 
value unless it is finally swallowed up in positive assurance. 
So Tennyson pictures the experience of his friend, Arthur 
Hallam : 

"One indeed I knew 
In many a subtle question versed, 
Who touch'd a jarring lyre at first, 
But ever strove to make it true : 

Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, 

At last he beat his music out. 

There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds. 

He fought his doubts and gather'd strength, 
He would not make his judgment blind, 
He faced the spectres of the mind 

And laid them : thus he came at length 

To find a stronger faith his own." 
35 



[11-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

O Most Merciful, whose love to us is mighty, long-suffering, 
and infinitely tender; lead us beyond all idols and imagina- 
tions of our minds to contact with Thee the real and abiding; 
past all barriers of fear and beyond all paralysis of failure 
to that furnace of flaming purity where falsehood, sin, and 
cowardice are all consumed away. It may be that we know 
not what we ask; yet we dare not ask for less. 

Our aspirations are hindered because we do not know our- 
selves. We have tried to slake our burning thirst at broken 
cisterns, to comfort the crying of our spirits with baubles 
and trinkets, to assuage the pain of our deep unrest by drug- 
ging an accusing conscience, believing a lie, and veiling the 
naked Hame that burns within. But now we know Thou 
makest us never to be content with aught save Thyself, in 
earth, or heaven, or hell. 

Sometimes we have sought Thee in agony and tears, scanned 
the clouds and watched the ways of men, considered the stars 
and studied the moral law; and returned from all our search 
no surer and no nearer. Yet now we know that the impulse 
to seek Thee came from Thyself alone, and what we sought 
for was the image Thou hadst first planted in our hearts. 

We may not yet hold Thee fast or feel Thee near, but we 
knozv Thou holdest us. All is well. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Second Week, Seventh Day 

Men are often prejudiced against religion or any serious 
consideration of it, because they never have felt any vital 
need of God. To study wireless telegraphy in the safe seclu- 
sion of a college laboratory is one thing ; to hear the wire- 
less apparatus on a floundering ship send out its call for help 
across a stormy sea is quite a different matter. Many folk 
have never thought of faith in God save with a mild, intel- 
lectual curiosity; they do not know those deep experiences 
of serious souls with sin and sorrow and anxiety, with 
burden for great causes and desire for triumphant righteous- 
ness in men and nations — experiences that throw men back 
on God as their only sufficient refuge and hope. Men never 
really find God until they need him; and some men never 
feel the need of him until life plunges them into a shattering 
experience. Even in scientific research new discoveries are 
made because men want them, and Mayer, lighting on a theory 

36 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-7] 

that proved to be of great value, says, "Engaged during a 
sea voyage almost exclusively with the study of physiology, 
I discovered the new theory, for the sufficient reason that I 
vividly felt the need of it." How much more must the vital 
discovery of God depend on life's conscious demand for 
him ! And how certainly a shallow, frivolous nature, un- 
stirred by the deep concerns of life, is biased against any 
serious interest in religious faith ! Great believers have first 
of all thirsted for God. 

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, 
come, buy wine and milk without money and without 
price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is 
not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? 
hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, 
and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your 
ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: 
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even 
the sure mercies of David. . . . Seek ye Jehovah while 
he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: let 
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will 
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon. — Isa. 55: 1-3, 6, 7. 

Grant unto us, we pray Thee, the lost hunger and thirst 
after righteousness — the longing for God. Grant unto us that 
drawing power by which everything that is in us shall call 
out for Thee. Become necessary unto us. With the morn- 
ing and evening light, at noon and at midnight, may we feel 
the need of Thy companionship. . . . Though Thou dost 
not speak as man speaks, yet Thou canst call out to us; and 
the soul shall know Thy presence, and shall understand by 
its own self what Thou meanest. Grant unto us this wit- 
ness of the Spirit, this communion of the soul with Thee — and 
not only once or twice: may we abide in the light. 

Thou hast come unto Thine own; and even as of old, 
Thine own know Thee not, and believe Thee not. How many 
are there that have learned Thy name upon their mother's 
knee, but have forgotten it! How many are there that grew 
up into the happiness of a childhood in which piety presided, 
but have gone away, and have not come back again to their 
first love and to their early faith! How many are there 

37 



[II-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

marching on now in the Sahara of indifference and in the 
wilderness of unbelief! . . . Lord, look upon them; have 
merciful thoughts toward them, and issue those gracious in- 
fluences of power by which what is best in them shall lift 
itself up and bear witness against that which is worst. Amen. 
— Henry Ward Beecher. 



COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
I 



We are to deal in this chapter with one of the most com 
mon experiences of doubt and are to attempt the statement o 
a truth useful in meeting it. Many minds are undone at th 
first symptoms of religious uncertainty, because they sup- 
pose that their doubt is philosophical, and they feel a paralyz- 
ing inability to deal with philosophy at all. As men have 
been known to .take to their beds at hearing the scientific 
names of illnesses which hitherto they had patiently endured, 
so minds are sometimes overwhelmed by an unsettlement of 
faith that takes the name of philosophic doubt. It is well, 
then, early in our study, to note the homely, familiar expe- 
rience, which in most cases underlies and helps to explain 
the problem of theological unrest. 

We all began, as children, with an unlimited ability to be- 
lieve what we were told. We were credulous long before we 
became critical. God and Santa Claus, fairy stories and life 
after death — in what beautiful, unquestioning confusion we 
received them all ! Our thinking was altogether imitative, as 
our talking was. From the existence of Kamchatka to the 
opinion that it was wrong to lie, we had no independent 
knowledge of our own. Reliance on authority was our only 
road to truth. One prescription was adequate for every need 
of information: ask our parents and be told. 

This situation was the occasion of our first unsettlement of 
faith : we discovered the fallibility of our parents. They 
failed to tell us what we asked, or we found to be untrue 
what they had said, or they themselves confessed how much 
they did not know. To some this was a shock, the memory 
of which has never been forgotten. Edmund Gosse, the liter- 
ary critic, tells us that up to his sixth year he thought that 
his father knew everything. Then came the fateful crisis 
when his father wrongly reported an incident which Edmund 

38 



. 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

himself had witnessed. "Nothing could possibly have been 
more trifling to my parents," he writes, "but to me it meant 
an epoch. Here was the appalling discovery never suspected 
before that my father was not as God and did not know every- 
thing. The shock was not caused by any suspicion that he 
was not telling the truth, as it appeared to him, but by the 
awful proof that he was not, as I had supposed, omniscient." 
By most of us, however, the transfer of our faith from our 
parents' authority to some other basis of belief was easily ac- 
complished. We found ourselves resting back on the priest or 
the church or the creed or the Bible. Still our convictions 
were not independently our own ; we had never fought for 
them or thought them through ; they were founded on the 
say-so of authority. What we wished to know we asked an- 
other, and what was told us we implicitly believed. 

The time inevitably comes, however, to a normally de- 
veloping mind, when such an attitude of unquestioning cre- 
dulity becomes impossible. The curious "Why?" of the grow- 
ing child, that began in early years to besiege all statements 
of fact, now ranges out to call in question the propositions of 
religious faith. For long-accepted truths, from the rotun- 
dity of the earth to the existence of God, the enlarging intel- 
lect wants reasons rather than dogmas. So normal is this 
period of interrogation that it is regularly slated on the time- 
tables of psychological development. Starbuck fixes the aver- 
age age of the doubt period at about eighteen years for boys 
and about fifteen for girls. 

At whatever time and in whatever special form this period 
of doubt arises, the characteristic quality of its outcome is 
easily described. In the end the fully awakened mind is ill 
content to accept any authoritative statements that he dare 
not question or deny. He resents having a quotation from 
any source waved like a revolver in his face with the demand 
that he throw up his intellectual hands. No more in religion 
than in politics does he incline to stand before infallibility, 
like the French peasants before Louis XI, saying, "Sire, what 
are our opinions?" He claims his right to question every- 
thing, to make every truth advance and give the countersign 
of reasonableness, to weigh all propositions in the scales of 
his own thinking, and if he is to love the Lord his God at 
all, to do it, not with all his credulity, but, as Jesus said, with 
ill his mind. 

39 



III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Biography reveals how many of the great believers have 
passed through this youthful period of rebellion against ac- 
cepted tradition and have suffered serious religious unsettle- 
ment in the process. Robert Browning tells us that as a boy 
he was "passionately religious." When his period of ques- 
tioning and revolt arrived, however, it carried him so far 
that he was publicly rebuked in church for intentional misbe- 
havior, and in his sixteenth year, under the influence of 
Shelley's "Queen Mab," he declared himself an atheist. But 
in his "Pauline," written when he was twenty-one, the direc- 
tion in which his quest was leading him was plain : 

"I have always had one lode-star; now 
As I look back, I see that I have halted 
Or hastened as I looked towards that star — 
A need, a trust, a yearning after God." 

And when he grew to his maturity, had left his early credu- 
lousness with the revolt that followed it far behind and had 
used his independent thinking to productive purpose, from 
what a height of splendid faith did he look back upon that 
youthful- period of storm and stress which he called "the 
passionate, impatient struggles of a boy toward truth and 
love" ! 

Henry Ward Beecher's intellectual revolution was post- 
poned until he had entered the theological seminary. "I was 
then twenty years old," he writes, "and there came a great 
revulsion in me from all this inchoate, unregulated, undi- 
rected experience. My mind took one tremendous spring 
over into scepticism, and I said : 'I have been a fool long 
enough — I will not stir one step further than I can see my 
way, and I will not stand a moment where I cannot see the 
truth. I will have something that is sure and steadfast.' Hav- 
ing taken that ground, I was in that state of mind for the 
larger part of two years." A wholesome restraint upon the 
wild perversions, the anarchic denials, the abysmal despairs 
of this period of life is the clear recognition that in some form 
it is one of the commonest experiences of man. 

II 

The treatment accorded to a youth who is passing through 
this difficult adjustment often determines, in a fine or lament- 

40 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

able way., his subsequent attitude towards religion. Negative 
repression of real questions is of all methods the most fatal, 
whether it be practiced on the youth by others or by the youth 
upon himself. "I have not been in church for twenty years," 
said a college graduate. "Why?" was the inquiry. "Because 
in college I learned from geology through how many ages this 
earth was slowly being built. Troubled by the conflict between 
this new knowledge and my early training, I went to my 
minister. He said that the Bible told us the earth was made 
in six days and that I must accept that on faith. That's 
why." Thousands of men are religious wrecks today be- 
cause, when the issue was raised in their thinking between 
their desire for a reason and their traditional beliefs, they 
were told that to ask a reason is sin. George Eliot's expe- 
rience unhappily is not unique. Just when in girlhood her 
mind was waking to independent thought, a book now long 
unread, Hennell's "Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Chris- 
tianity," convinced her immature judgment that her early 
credulity had been blind. No one was at hand to state the 
faith in a reasonable way or to meet, not by denying but by 
using her right to think, the attacks of Hennell, which now 
are forgotten in their futility. She never came through her 
youthful unsettlement. Years after, F. W. H. Myers wrote : 
"I remember how at Cambridge I walked with her once in 
the Fellows' Garden of Trinity, on an evening of rainy May, 
and she, stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as 
her text the three words which have been used so often as the 
inspiring trumpet calls of men — the words God, Immortality, 
Duty — pronounced with terrible earnestness, how inconceiv- 
able was the first, how unbelievable was the second, and how 
peremptory and absolute the third. Never, perhaps, had 
sterner accents affirmed the sovereignty of impersonal and 
unrecompensing law. I listened and night fell ; her grave, 
majestic countenance turned toward me like a Sibyl's in the 
gloom ; it was as though she withdrew from my grasp one 
by one the two scrolls of promise, and left me the third scroll 
only, awful with inevitable fate." 

In this period of readjustment, whether one is the youth in 
the midst of the struggle or the solicitous friend endeavoring 
to help, one most needs a clear perception of the ideal out- 
come of such intellectual unrest. ' Let us attempt a picture of 
that ideal. The youth who long has taken on his parents' say- 

4i 



[II-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

so the most important convictions that the soul can hold, or 
who, with no care to think or question for himself, has looked 
to Book or Church for all that he believed about God, now 
feels within him that intellectual awakening that cannot be 
quieted by mere authority. He long has taken his truth 
preserved by others' hands ; now he desires to pick it for 
himself, fresh from the living tree of knowledge. His 
declaration of independence from subjection to his parents 
or his Church is not at first irreverent desire to disbelieve; 
it is rather desire to enter into the Samaritans' experience 
when they said to the woman who first had told them about 
Jesus: "Now we believe, not because of thy speaking; for we 
have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the 
Saviour of the world" (John 4:41). The youth turns from 
second-hand rehearsal of the truth to seek a first-hand, orig- 
inal acquaintance with it. As he began in utter financial de- 
pendence on his father, then made a bit of spending money 
of his own, and at last moved out to make his living, ashamed 
to, be a pensioner and parasite when he should be carrying 
himself, so from his old, intellectual dependence the youth 
passes to a fine responsibility for his own thinking and belief. 
He knows that such transitions, whether financial or intellect- 
ual, generally mean stress and perplexity, but if he is to be 
a man the youth must venture. 

In this transition beliefs will certainly be modified. Not 
only do forms of religious thinking shift and change with the 
passing generations, but individuals differ in their powers to 
see and understand. Religious faith, like water, takes shape 
from the receptacles into whose unique nooks and crannies 
it is poured. If the truth which the youth possesses is to be 
indeed his own, it will surely differ from the truth which once 
he learned, by as much as his mind and his experience differ 
from his father's. Even in the New Testament one can easily 
distinguish James' thought from Paul's and John's from 
Peter's. But change of form need not mean loss of value. 
To pass by fine gradations from unquestioning credulity to 
thoughtful faith is not impossible. Thus a boy learns to swim 
with his father's hands beneath him and passes so gradually 
from reliance upon another to independent power to swim 
alone that he cannot tell when first the old support was 
quietly withdrawn. 

Thus ideally pictured, this transition is nothing to be feared ; 
42 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

it is one of life's steps to spiritual power. This pe/iod of 
questioning and venture we have called the passage from 
credulity to independence, but its significance is deeper than 
those words imply. It is the passage from hearsay to reality. 
Of all inward intimate experiences, religion reaches deepest 
and is least transferable. It is as incommunicable as friend- 
ship. A father may commend a comrade to his son and lay 
bare his own deep friendship with the man, but if the son 
himself does not see the value there nor for himself in loyalty b 
and love make self surrender, the father can do nothing more. 
Friendship cannot be carried on by proxy. One can as easily 
breathe for another as in another's place be loyal to a friend 
or trust in God. 

When, therefore, the youth moves out from mere depen- 
dence on his father, his Bible, or his Church to see and know 
God in his own right, he is fulfilling the end of all religion. 
For this his father taught him, for this the Book was written 
and the Church was founded. As George Macdonald put it,, 
"Each generation must do its own seeking and finding. The 
father's having found is only the warrant for the children's 
search." Said Goethe: "What you have inherited from your 
fathers you must earn for yourself before you can call it 
yours." This individual experience makes religion real, and 
the "awkward age" of the spirit when the old security of 
credulous belief has gone and the new assurance of personal 
conviction has not yet fully come, is a small price to pay for 
the sense of reality that enters into religion when a man for 
himself knows God. Such is the ideal transition from cre- 
dulity to independence, from hearsay to reality. 

Ill 

One fallacy which disastrously affects many endeavors after 
this ideal transition is the prejudice that, since faith has 
hitherto in the youth's experience meant credulous acceptance 
of another's say-so, faith always must mean that. Faith and 
credulity appear to him identical. In "Alice through the 
Looking Glass" the Queen asserts that she is a hundred and 
one years, five months, and one day old. "I can't believe 
that," said Alice. "Can't you?" said the Queen. "Try again, 
draw a long breath and shut your eyes." So blind, irrational, 
and wilful does faith seem to many ! So far from being an 

43 



[II-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

essential part of all real knowledge, therefore, faith seems to 
stand in direct contrast with knowledge, and this impression 
is deepened by our common phraseology. Tennyson, for ex- 
ample, sings: 

"We have but faith : we cannot know ; 
For knowledge is of things we see." 

Before there can be any profitable discussion of religious 
belief, therefore, we need to see that faith is one of the chief 
ways in which continually we deal with reality; it is a road 
to truth, without which some truth never can be reached at all. 
The reason for its inevitableness in life is not our lack of 
knowledge, but rather that faith is as indispensable as logical 
demonstration in any real knowing of the world. Behind all 
other words to be said about our subject lies this fundamental 
matter: faith is not a substitute for truth, but a pathway to 
truth; there are realities which without it never can be known. 

For one thing, no one can know persons without faith. The 
world of people, without whom if a man could live, he would 
be, as Aristotle said, either a brute or a god, is closed in its 
inner meaning to a faithless mind. Entrance into another 
life with insight and understanding is always a venture of 
trust. We cry vainly like Cassim before the magic cave, 
"Open, Barley," if we try to penetrate the secrets of a human 
personality without sympathy, loyalty, faith. These alone cry 
"Open, Sesame." 

Surely this knowledge of persons, impossible without faith, 
is as important as any which we possess. While the physical 
universe furnishes the general background of our existence, 
the immediate world in which we really live is personal, made 
up of people whom we fear or love, by whom we are cheered, 
admonished, hurt, and comforted. "The world is so waste 
and empty," cried Goethe, "when we figure but towns and 
hills and rivers in it, but to know that someone is living on it 
with us, even in silence — this makes our earthly ball a peopled 
garden." A solitary Robinson Crusoe would give up any 
other knowledge, if in return he could know even a benighted 
savage like Friday. But even a savage cannot be known by 
logical demonstration. Crusoe could so have learned some 
things, but when he wanted to know Friday, he came by way 
of adventures in confidence, personal trust and self-commit- 

44 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

ment, growing reliance and appreciative insight, assured loy- 
alty and faith. He knew whom he had believed. 

Moreover, such knowledge of persons is as solid as it is 
important. That two plus two make four cannot be gain- 
said, and doubtless no other kinds of information can be 
quite so absolute as mathematical theorems. But when one 
thinks of a comrade, long loved and trusted until he is known 
through and through, for practical purposes one can think of 
nothing more stable than his knowledge of his friend. The 
plain iact is that we do know people, know them well, and 
that this knowledge never has been or can be a matter of 
logical demonstration. By taking Arthur Hallam to pieces and 
analyzing him, the inductive mind might work out all the laws 
that are involved in Arthur Hallam's constitution ; but that 
mind with all its knowledge would not know Arthur Hallam. 
Tennyson's "In Memoriam," however, makes clear that knowl- 
edge of a friend is not interdicted because scientific demon- 
stration cannot supply it. Tennyson knew Hallam well, and 
this knowledge, far more solid and significant than most other 
information he possessed, was not achieved by grinding laws 
out of facts ; it came, as all such knowledge comes, by faith. 

As one considers what this understanding of the personal 
world, seen with the open eyes of trust and loyalty, means to 
us, how assured it is, how it enriches and deepens life, he per- 
ceives that here at least faith is something far more than a 
stop-gap for ignorance, a dream, a fantasy. It is positively a 
pathway to truth. 

There is another realm where faith is our only way of deal- 
ing with reality; by it alone can we know the possibilities of 
individuals and of society. We are well assured now in the 
United States that the nation can be economically prosperous 
without slavery. But sixty years ago plenty of people 
were assured of the contrary, were convinced that if the 
abolitionists succeeded we could not economically endure. 
How did we come by this significant knowledge that the 
immoral system was dispensable? Not by logical demonstra- 
tion. The economists of most of our universities logically 
demonstrated that slavery was essential. Faith ivas the path- 
way to the truth. Faith that a new order minus slavery was 
possible gained adherents, grew in certainty with access of 
new believers, fed its followers on hopes unrealized but pas- 
sionately believed in, until faith became experiment, and ex- 

45 



III-c] 



THE MEANING OF FAITH 



periment became experience, and experience brought forth 
knowledge. The nation trusted and tried. This is the only 
way to truth in the realm of moral possibilities. If the world 
were finished, its i's all dotted and its t's all crossed, we might 
exist on that sort of descriptive science that finds the facts 
and plots their laws. But the world is in the making ; what is 
actual is not quite so important to us as what is possible; we 
live, as Wordsworth sings, in 

"Hope that can never die, 
Effort and expectation and desire, 
And something evermore about to be." 

'To endeavor to satisfy man, therefore, with descriptions of 
the actual is preposterous. The innermost meaning of per- 
sonal and social life lies in the contrast between what we are 
and what we may become. Beyond the achieved present and 
the demonstrable future, stands the ideal, whose possibility 
we can never know as a truth without faith enough to try. 

When, therefore, one hears disparagement of faith as a 
poor makeshift for knowledge, he may be pardoned a sharp 
rejoinder. When has man ever found solid knowledge in 
this most important realm of human possibilities, without 
faith as the pioneer? We do not know first and then 'supply 
by belief what knowledge lacks. We believe first, as Colum- 
bus did, and then find new continents because what faith first 
suggested a great venture has confirmed. When Stephenson 
proposed to run a steam car forty miles an hour, a host of 
wise-acres proved the feat impossible on the ground that no 
one could move through the air so rapidly and still survive. 
If now we know that one easily survives a speed of over a 
hundred miles an hour in an aeroplane, it is because a faith 
that saw and dared introduced us to the information. We 
know now that democracy is not a futile dream, nor the con- 
quest of the air by wireless and of the land by electricity a 
madman's frenzy; we know truths of highest import and 
certainty from the usefulness of radium to the wisdom of 
religious liberty, and all this knowledge existed as belief in 
possibility before it became truth in fact. Faith was "assur- 
ance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" 
(Hebrews 11:1). Faith is no makeshift. Its power is no- 

46 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

where felt more effectively than in the achievement of knowl- 
edge. 

IV 

So far is faith, then, from being blind credulity, that it 
alone deserves to be called the Great Discoverer. Every- 
where faith goes before as a pioneer and the more prosaic 
faculties of the mind come after to civilize the newly opened 
territory. In the evolution of the senses touch developed first. 
All the knowledge that any creature had, concerned the tan- 
gible. But in time other senses came. Dimly and uncertainly 
creatures discerned by hearing and seeing the existence of 
distant objects. They became aware of presences which as 
yet they could not touch ; they were furnished with clues, in 
following which they found as real what at first had been in- 
tangible. Such a relation faith bears to knowledge. Faith, 
said Clement of Alexandria, is the "ear of the soul." Said 
Ruskin, faith is "veracity of insight. ,, By it we hear what as 
yet we cannot touch and see what the arms of our logic are 
not long enough to reach. 

All the elemental, primary facts of life are faith's, discover- 
ies ; we have no other means of finding them. By faith we 
discover our selves. We do not hold back from living until 
we can prove that we exist. We never can strictly prove that 
we exist. The very self that we are trying to demonstrate 
would have to be used in the demonstration. We have no 
other way of getting at ourselves except to take ourselves 
for granted — accepting 

"This main miracle that you are you, 
With power on your own act and on the world.'' 

As Mr. Chesterton remarked, "You cannot call up any wilder 
vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have 
any selves." By faith all men go out to live as though their 
selves were real. 

By faith we accept the existence of the outer world. We 
do not restrain ourselves from acting as though the physical 
world were really there, until we can prove it. We never can 
strictly prove it ; perhaps it is not there at all. When through 
a microscope an Indian was shown germs in the Ganges' 
water, to convince him of the peril of its use, he broke the 

47 



[II-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

instrument with his cane, as though when the microscope was 
gone, the facts had vanished too. In his philosophy all that 
we see is illusion. Perhaps this is true — the world a phantasm 
and our minds fooling us. But none of us believes it. And 
we do not believe it because we live by faith — the elemental 
faith on which all common sense and science rest and with- 
out which man's thought and work would halt — that our 
senses and our minds tell us the truth. "It is idle to talk 
always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason itself 
is a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that one's 
thoughts have any relation to reality at all." 

By faith we even discover the universe. We cannot think 
of the world as a multiverse; we always think of it as having 
unity, and we do so whether as scientists we talk about the 
uniformity of nature, or as Christians we speak of one Cre- 
ator. Not only, however, can no one demonstrate that this is 
'a universe; it positively does not look as though it were. 
Opposing powers snarl at each other and clash in a disorder 
that gives to the casual observer not the slightest intimation 
that any unity is there. Thunder storms and little babies, 
volcanoes and Easter lilies, immeasurable nebulae in the 
heavens and people getting married on the earth — what in- 
describable contrasts and confusions ! Still we insist on 
thinking unity into this seeming anomaly, and out of it we 
wrest scientific doctrines about the uniformity of law. As 
Professor James, of Harvard, put it, "The principle of uni- 
formity in nature has to be sought under and in spite of the 
most rebellious appearances ; and our conviction of its truth 
is far more like religious faith than like assent to a demon- 
stration." 

One might suppose that beliefs so assumed and so incapable 
of adequate demonstration would make the knowledge based 
upon them insecure. But the fact is that all our surest knowl- 
edge is thus based on assumptions that we cannot prove. "As 
for the strong conviction," Huxley says, "that the cosmic 
order is rational, and the faith that throughout all duration, 
unbroken order has reigned in the universe, I not only accept 
it, but I am disposed to think it the most important of all 
truths." Faith then, in Huxley's thought, is not a makeshift 
when knowledge fails. Rather by faith we continually are 
getting at the most important realities with which we deal. 
As Prof. Ladd, of Yale, impatiently exclaims: "The rankest 

48 



FAITH A ROAD TO TRUTH [II-c] 

agnostic is shot through and through with all the same funda- 
mental intellectual beliefs, all the same unescapable rational 
faiths, about the reality of the self and about the validity of 
its knowledge. You cannot save science and destroy all faith. 
You cannot sit on the limb of the tree while you tear it up 
by the roots." 

V 

If faith is thus the pioneer that leads us to knowledge of 
persons and of moral possibilities ; if by faith we discover our 
selves, the outer world's existence and its unity, why should 
we be surprised that faith is our road to God? Superficial 
deniers of religion not infrequently seek the discredit of a 
Christian's trust by saying that God is only a matter of faith. 
To which the Christian confidently may answer: Of course 
God is a matter of faith. Faith is always the Great Dis- 
coverer. 

A man finds God as he finds an earthly friend. He does 
not go apart in academic solitude to consider the logical 
rationality of friendship, until, intellectually convinced, he 
coolly arms himself with a Q. E. D. and goes out to hunt a 
comrade. Friendship is never an 'adventure of logic ; it is an 
adventure of life. It is arrived at by- what Emerson called 
the "untaught sallies of the spirit." We fall in love, it may 
be with precipitant emotion ; our instincts and our wills are 
first engaged; the whole personality rises up in hunger to 
claim the affection that it needs and without which life seems 
unsupportable ; faith, hope, and love engage in a glorious 
venture, where logic plays a minor part. But to make friend- * 
ship rational, to give it poise, to trace its origins and laws, to 
clarify, chasten, and direct — this is the necessary work of 
thought. Faith discovers and reveals ; reason furnishes criti- 
cism, confirmation, and discipline. 

So men find God. They are hungry for him not in intellect 
alone, but with all their powers. They feel with Tolstoi: "I 
remembered that I only lived at those times when I believed 
in God." They need him to put sense and worth and hope 
into life. As with the reality of persons, the validity of 
knowledge, the unity of the world, so in religion the whole 
man rises up to claim the truth without which life is barren, 
meaningless. His best convictions at the first are all of them 
insights of the spirit, affirmations of the man. But behind, 

49 



[II-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

\ 

around and through them all play clarifying thoughts, and 
reasons come to discipline and to confirm. But the reasons 
by themselves could not have found God. Faith is the Great 
Discoverer. 

"Oh ! world, thou choosest not the better part, 
It is not wisdom to be only wise, 
And on the inward vision close the eyes ; 
But it is wisdom to believe the heart. 
Columbus found a world and had no chart 
Save one that Faith deciphered in the skies ; 
To trust the soul's invincible surmise 
Was all his science and his only art. 
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine 
That lights the pathway but one step ahead 
Across the void of mystery and dread. 
Bid then the tender light of Faith to shine 
By which alone the mortal heart is led 
Into the thinking of the thought Divine." x 



1 Professor Santayana, of Harvard. 



50 



CHAPTER III 

Faith in the Personal God 

DAILY READINGS 

We are to consider this week the Christian faith that God 
is personal. Before, however, we deal with the arguments 
which may confirm our confidence in such a faith, or even 
with the explanations that may clarify our conception of its 
meaning, let us, in the daily readings, consider some of the 
familiar attitudes in every normal human life, that require 
God's personality for their fulfilment. Men have believed 
in a personal God because their own nature demanded it. 

Third Week, First Day 

Men have believed in a personal God because of a deep 
desire to think of creation as friendly. F. W. Myers, when 
asked what question he would put to the Sphinx, if he were 
given only one chance, replied that he would ask, "Is the 
universe friendly ?" Some have tried to think of creation 
as an enemy which we must fight, as though in Green- 
land we strove to make verdure grow, although the soil 
and climate were antagonistic. Some have tried to think 
creation neutral, an impersonal system of laws and forces, 
which we must impose our will upon as best we can, al- 
though in the end the system is sure to outlast all our efforts 
and to bring our gains to naught. But at the heart of man 
is an irresistible desire to think creation a friend, with whose 
good purposes our wills can be aligned, and whose power can 
carry our efforts to victorious ends. Says Gilbert Murray, 
of Oxford University, "As I see philosophy after philosophy 
falling into this unproven belief in the Friend behind 
phenomena, as I find that I myself cannot, except for a 
moment and by an effort, refrain from making the same 
assumption, it seems to me that perhaps here too we are 
under the spell of a very old ineradicable instinct." But 

5i 









[III-i] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

friends are always persons, and if creation is friendly then 
God is in some sense personal. This faith is the radiant 
center of the Gospel. 

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner 
chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall 
recompense thee. And in praying use not vain repetitions, 
as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard 
for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them: 
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, 
before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: 
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so 
on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive 
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And 
bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the 
evil one. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you. — Matt. 6: 6-14. 

O Lord, we would rest in Thee, for in Thee alone is true 
rest to be found. We would forget our disappointed hopes, 
our fruitless efforts, our trivial aims, and lean on Thee, our 
Comfort and our Strength. When the order of this world 
bears cruelly upon us; when Nature seems to us an awful 
machine, grinding out life and death, without a reason or 
a purpose; when our hopes perish in the grave where we 
lay to rest our loved dead: O what can we do but turn to 
Thee, whose law underlie th all, and whose love, we trust, 
is the end of all? Thou fillest all things with Thy presence, 
and dost press close to our souls. Still every passion, rebuke 
every doubt, strengthen every element of good within us, 
that nothing may hinder the outflow of Thy life and power. 
In Thee, let the weak be full of might, and let the strong 
renew their strength. In Thee, let the tempted find succor, 
the sorrowing consolation, and the lonely and the neglected 
their Supreme Friend, their faithful Companion. 

O Lord, we are weary of our old, barren selves. Separate 
us from our spiritual past, and quicken within us the seed, 
of a new future. Transform us by the breath of Thy regen- 
erating power, that life may seem supremely beautiful and 
duty our highest privilege, and the only real evil a guilty 
conscience. Let us be no longer sad, or downcast, or miser- 
able, or despairing, vexed by remorse, or depressed by our 

52 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-2J 

failures. Take from us the old self. Give us a new self, 
beautiful, vigorous, and joyous. Let old things pass away 
and let all things become new. Kindle within us a flame 
of heavenly devotion, so that to us work for Thee shall be- 
come a happiness, and rest in Thee shall become an energy, 
unchecked by fears within and foes without. Give us love, 
and then we shall have more than all we need, for Thou art 
Love, Thyself the Giver and the Gift. Amen. — Samuel 
McComb. 

Third Week, Second Day 

Bless Jehovah, O my soul; 

And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 

Bless Jehovah, O my soul, 

And forget not all his benefits: 

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; 

Who healeth all thy diseases; 

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; 

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender 

mercies; 
Who satisfieth thy desire with good things, 
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. 

— Psalm 103: 1-5. 

Such an attitude of thankfulness as this psalm represents 
is native to man's heart. When he is glad he feels grateful ; 
he has an irrepressible impulse to thank somebody. As be- 
tween a boastful Nebuchadnezzar — "This great Babylon which 
I have built . . . by the might of my power and for the glory 
bf my majesty" (Dan. 4: 30) — and the Master, grateful for the 
/dawning success of his cause — "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord 
jof heaven and earth" (Matt. 11 : 25) — we can have no doubt 
which is the nobler attitude. Man at his best always looks 
upon his blessings as gifts, his powers as entrustments, his 
iservice as a debt which he owes, and his success as an occa- 
ision of gratitude rather than pride. But we cannot be really 
\thankful to impersonal power. Little children blame chairs 
for their falls and thank apple trees for their apples, but 
maturity outgrows the folly of accusing or blessing imper- 
sonal things. Thankfulness, in any worthy interpretation 
jof the term, can never be felt except toward friendly persons 
Hvho intended the blessing for which we are glad. A thought- 
]ful man, therefore, cannot be grateful to a godless world- 

53 



[III-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

machine, even though it has treated him well, for the world- 
machine never purposed to treat him well and his happiness 
is a lucky accident, with no good will to thank for it. Haeckel 
says that there is no God — only "mobile, cosmic ether." 
Imagine a congregation of people, under Haeckel's leader- 
ship, rising to pray, "O Mobile Cosmic Ether, blessed be thy 
name !" It is absurd. Unless God is personal, the deepest 
meanings of gratitude in human hearts for life and its bene- 
dictions have no proper place in the universe. 

O God above all, yet in all; holy beyond all imagination, 
yet friend of sinners; who inhabit est the realms of unfading 
light, yet leadest us through the shadows of mortal life; how 
solemn and uplifting it is even to think upon Thee! Like 
sight of sea to zvearied eyes, like a walled-in garden to the 
troubled mind, like home to wanderer, like a strong tower 
to a soul pursued; so to us is the sound of Thy name. 

But greater still to feel Thee in our heart; like a river 
glorious, cleansing, healing, bringing life; like a song vic- 
torious, comforting our sadness, banishing our care; like a 
voice calling us to battle, urging us beyond ourselves. 

But greater far to know Thee as our Father, as dear as 
Thou art near; and ourselves begotten of Thy love, made 
in Thy image, cared for through all our days, never beyond 
Thy sight, never out of Thy thought. 

To think of Thee is rest; to know Thee is eternal life; 
to see Thee is the end of all desire; to serve Thee is perfect 
freedom and everlasting joy. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Third Week, Third Day 

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving- 
kindness : 

According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot 
out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, 

And cleanse me from my sin. 

For I know my transgressions; 

And my sin is ever^before me. 

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, 

And done that which is evil in thy sight. 

Psalm 51: 1-4. 

Penitence is one of the profoundest impulses in man's ; 
heart. And man at his deepest always feels about his sin 

54 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-3I 

as the Psalmist did : he has wronged not only this individual 
or that, but he has sinned against the whole structure of life, 
against whatever Power and Purpose may be behind life, 
and his penitence is not complete until he cries to the High- 
est, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." While men, 
therefore, have always asked each other for forgiveness, they 
have as well asked God for it. But such an attitude is utterly 
irrational if God is not personal. Persons alone care what 
we do, have purposes that our sins thwart, have love that 
our evil grieves, have compassion to forgive the penitent ;, 
and to confess sin to a world-machine — careless, purposeless,, 
loveless, and without compassion — is folly. Yesterday we 
saw how impossible it was really to feel grateful to a material- 
ist's god; today imagine congregations of people addressing 
to the Cosmic Ether any such penitent confessions as Chris- 
tians by multitudes continually address to their Father : 
"We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep." 
Plainly in a world where creative power is impersonal the 
deepest meanings of penitence have no place. Read over the 
prayer that follows, considering the futility of addressing 
such a penitent aspiration to anything impersonal; and then 
really pray it to the God whom Christ revealed : 

We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favor, folk of 
many families and nations gathered together in the peace 
of this roof, weak men and women subsisting under the 
covert of thy patience. Be patient still; suffer us yet awhile 
longer — with our broken purposes of good, with our idle 
endeavors against evil, suffer us awhile longer to endure and 
(if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraor- 
dinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, 
brace us to play the man under affliction. Be with our friends, 
be with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest; if any awake, 
temper to them the dark hours of watching; and when the 
day returns, return to us, our sun and comforter, and call 
us up with morning faces and with morning hearts — eager 
to labor — eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion 
— and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it. 

We thank Thee and praise Thee; and in the words of him 
to whom this day is sacred, close our oblation. Amen. — 
Robert Louis Stevenson. 1 



1 Copyright, 1914, Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by permission. 

55 



[III-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Third Week, Fourth Day 

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace 
in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power 
of the Holy Spirit. — Rom. 15: 13. 

For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is 
not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But 
if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with 
patience wait for it. — Rom. 8: 24, 25. 

Hope is no fringe on the garment of human life ; it is 
part of the solid texture of our experience; without it men 
may exist, but they cannot live. Now some minds live by 
hope about tomorrow, or at the most, the day after tomorrow, 
and do not take long looks ahead. But as men grow mature 
in thoughtfulness, such small horizons no longer can content 
their minds ; they seek a basis for hope about the far issue 
of man's struggle and aspiration. They cannot bear to think 
that creation lacks a "far-off divine event" ; they cannot 
tolerate a universe that in the end turns out to be 

"An eddy of purposeless dust, 
Effort unmeaning and vain." 

But it is obvious that if God is not in control of creation, 
with personal purpose of good will, directing its course, there 
is no solid basis for hope. If the universe is in the hands 
of physical forces, then a long look ahead reveals a world 
collapsing about a cold sun, and humanity annihilated in the 
wreck. Some such finale is the inevitable end of a godless 
world. As another pictures it, mankind, like a polar bear 
on an ice floe that is drifting into warmer zones, will watch 
in growling impotence the steady dwindling of his home, 
until he sinks in the abyss. All optimistic philosophies of 
life have been founded on faith in a personal God, who 
purposes good to his children, and without such faith no hope, 
with large horizons, is reasonable. Paul is fair to the facts 
when he says, "Having no hope and without God in the 
world" (Eph. 2: 12). When one asks why men have be- 
lieved in a personal God, this clearly is part of the answer: 
only a personal God can be "the God of hope." 



O God of heaven above and earth beneath! Thou art the 
constant hope of every age — the reliance of them that seek 

56 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-5I 

Thee with thought fulness and love. We own Thee as the 
guardian of our pilgrimage ; and when our steps are weary 
we turn to Thee, the mystic companion of our way, whose 
mercy will uphold us lest we fall. Thou layest on us the bur- 
den of labor throughout our days; but in this sacred hour 
Thou dost lift off our load, and make us partakers of Thy 
rest. Thou ever faithful God, our guide by cloud and fire! 
without this blest repose our life were but a desert path; 
here we abide by the refreshing spring, and pitch our tents 
with joy around Thy holy hill. Yet when we seek to draw 
nigh to Thee, Thou art still above us, like the heavens. O 
Thou that remainest in the height, and coverest Thyself with 
the cloud thereof! behold, we stand around the mountain 
where Thou art; and if Thou wilt commune with us, the 
thunder from Thy voice of love shall not make us afraid. 
Call up a spirit from our midst to serve Thy will; and take 
away the veil from all our hearts, that with the eye of purity 
we may look on the bright and holy countenance of life. 
And when we go hence to resume our way, may it be with 
nobler spirits, with more faithful courage, and more generous 
will. For life and death we trust ourselves to Thee as 
disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen. — James Martineau. 

Third Week, Fifth Day 

Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: 

Thou maintainest my lot. 

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; 

Yea, I have a goodly heritage. 

I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel; 

Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons. 

I have set Jehovah always before me: 

JBecause he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: 
i My flesh also shall dwell in safety. 

For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; 
I Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. 

Thou wilt show me the path of life: 
' In thy presence is fulness of joy; 
! In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 

— Psalm 16: 5-1 1. 

Many things in human life bring joy. From the sense of 
a healthy body and the exhilaration of a sunshiny day to the 

57 



[III-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

deep satisfactions of home and friends — there are numberless 
sources of happiness. But man has always been athirst to 
find joy in thinking about the total meaning of life. Lack- 
ing that, the details of life lose radiance, for, in spite of him- 
self, man 

"Hath among least things 
An undersense of greatest; sees the parts 
As parts, but with a feeling of the whole." 

If when he thinks about God, he can, like this psalmist, re- 
joice in the love behind life, the good purpose through 
it, the glorious future ahead of it, then all his other bless- 
ings are illumined. Not only are there happy things in life, 
but life itself is fundamentally blessed. But if when he 
raises his thought to the Eternal, he has no joyful thoughts 
about it, sees no love or purpose there, then a pall falls on 
even his ordinary happiness. Alas for that man who does 
not like to think about life's origin and destiny and meaning, 
because he has no joyful faith about God! Some men have 
what Epictetus called "paralysis of the soul" every time they 
think of creation, for to them it is a huge physical machine 
crashing on without reason or good will. But some men 
have such a joyful faith in the divine that their gladness 
about the whole of life redeems their sorrow about its 
details. So Samuel Rutherford in prison said, "Jesus Christ 
came into my room last night and every stone flashed like 
a ruby." For the thought of God in terms of friendly per- 
sonality is the most joyful idea of him that man has ever 
riad. Man's thirst for joy is one of the sources of his faith 
in a personal God. He has wanted what Paul called "joy 
and peace in believing" (Rom. 15: 13). 

We rejoice, O Lord our God, not in ourselves nor in the 
firm earth on which we tread, nor in the household, nor in 
the church, nor in all the procession of things where mankind 
moves with power and glory. We rejoice in the Lord. We 
rejoice in Thy strength. A strange joy it is. Day by day 
we find ourselves breaking out into gladness through the 
ministration of the senses, and by the play of inward thought; 
but Thou art never beheld by us. . . . Thou never speakest to 
us, nor do we feel Thy hand, nor do we discern Thy face 
of love and glory and power. We break away from all other 

58 






FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-6] 

experiences, and look up into the emptiness, as it seems to 
us, which yet is full of life; into that which seems cold and 
void, but wherein moves eternal power; into the voiceless 
and inscrutable realm where Thou dwellest, God over all, 
blessed forever. . . . O Lord our God, how near Thou 
art to us! and we do not know it. How near is the other 
life! and we do not feel it. It clothes us as with a garment. 
It feeds us. It shines down upon us. It rejoices over us. 
. . . Thither, out of narrow and anguishful ways, out of 
sorrows, out of regrets, out of bereavements, we look; and 
already we are rested before we reach it. 

Grant unto us, today, zve beseech Thee, this beatific vision. 
Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 

Third Week, Sixth Day 

For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am 
of Apollos; are ye not men? What then is Apollos? and 
what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and 
each as the Lord gave to him. I planted, Apollos watered; 
but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that 
planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God 
that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he 
that watereth are one: but each shall receive his own re- 
ward according to his own labor. For we are God's fel- 
low-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building. — 
i Cor. 3: 4-9. 

One of the profoundest motives that can grip man's heart 
is the conviction that he is a fellow-worker with the Divine. 
To feel that there is a great Cause, on behalf of which God 
himself is concerned, and in the furtherance of which we can 
be God's instruments and confederates, is the most exhilarat- 
ing outlook on life conceivable. Even people who deny God try 
to get this motive for themselves. One such man hopes for 
the success of his favorite causes in "the tendency of the 
universe" ; another talks about "the nature of things taking 
sides." But nothing save personality has moral tendencies, 
and only persons take sides in moral issues. If the guidance 
of the world is personal, then, and then only, can we rejoice 
with confidence in a great Ally, who has moral purposes and 
who has committed to us part of his work. This was the 
Master's motive when he said, "My Father worlteth even 
until now, and I work" (John 5: 17). But one clearly sees 

59 



[III-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

that such an inspiring consciousness of cooperation with the 
Eternal depended on the certainty with which the Master 
called the Eternal by a personal name — Father. When men 
like Livingstone have gone out in sacrificial adventure for 
the saving of men they have not banked on the "tendency of 
the universe," nor trusted in any abstract "nature of things 
taking sides" ; they have been servants of a personal God, 
under orders from him, and they have counted on personal 
guidance in the service of a cause whose issue was safe 
in God's hands. 

O God, we pray Thee for those who come after us, for 
our children, and the children of our friends, and for all the 
young lives that are marching up from the gates of birth, 
pure and eager, with the morning sunshine on their faces. 
We remember with a pang that these will live in the world 
we are making for them. We are wasting the resources of 
the earth in our headlong greed, and they will suffer want. 
We are building^ sunless houses and joyless cities for our 
profit, and they must dwell therein. We are making the 
burden heavy and the pace of work pitiless, and they will 
fall wan and sobbing by the wayside. We are poisoning the 
air of our land by our lies and our uncleanness, and they 
will breathe" it. 

O God, Thou knowest how we have cried out in agony 
when the sins of our fathers have been visited upon us, and 
how we have struggled vainly against the inexorable fate 
that coursed in our blood or bound us in a prison-house of 
life. Save us from maiming the innocent ones who come 
after us by the added cruelty of our sins. Help us to break 
the ancient force of evil by a holy and steadfast will and to 
endow our children with purer blood and nobler thoughts. 
Grant us grace to leave the earth fairer than we found it; 
to build upon it cities of God in which the cry of needless 
pain shall cease; and to put the yoke of Christ upon our 
business life that it may serve and not destroy. Lift the 
veil of the future and show us the generation to come as it 
zvill be if blighted by our guilt, that our lust may be cooled 
and we may walk in the fear of the Eternal. Grant us a 
vision of the far-off years as they may be if redeemed by 
the sons of God, that we may take heart and do battle for 
Thy children and ours. Amen. — Walter Rauschenbusch. 

60 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD . [Ill-/] 

Third Week, Seventh Day 

I will extol thee, my God, O King; 

And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 

Every day will I bless thee; 

And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 

Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised; 

And his greatness is unsearchable. 

One generation shall laud thy works to another, 

And shall declare thy mighty acts. 

Of the glorious majesty of thine honor, 

And of thy wondrous works, will I meditate. 

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; 

And I will declare thy greatness. 

They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, 

And shall sing of thy righteousness. 

Jehovah is gracious, and merciful; 

Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness. 

Jehovah is good to all; 

And his tender mercies are over all his works. 

All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O Jehovah; 

And thy saints shall bless thee. 

— Psalm 145: 1-10. 

Adoration springs from the deeps of man's spirit. We 
never can be content with looking down on things beneath 
us, nor with looking out on things that find our level. We 
always must look up to things above us. As a mediaeval 
saint said, "The soul can never rest in things that are beneath 
itself." Worship, therefore, is an undeniable impulse in man's 
heart. Poets worship Beauty; scientists worship Truth; 
every man of honor worships Right. That is, the good, true, 
and beautiful stand above us calling out our adoration, and 
all the best in us springs from our worshipful response to 
their appeal. But this impulse to adore is never fulfilled 
until we gather up all life into spiritual unity and bow down 
in awe and joy before God. That is adoration glorified, 
worship crowned and consummated. And the only God whom 
man can adore with awe and joy is personal. No impersonal 
thing is worshipful; however great a thing may be it still 
lies beneath our soul. No abstract Idea is worshipful; we 
still are greater than any idea that we can hold. Only God, 
thought of in personal terms but known to be greater than 
any terms which human life can use, is adorable. Men have 
believed in Him because worship is man's 'holiest impulse. 

61 



flll-e] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Such are the experiences of man, with which faith in a 
personal God is inseparably interwoven. Our demand for a 
friendly creation, our deepest impulses to thanksgiving, peni- 
tence, hope, joy, cooperation with the Eternal, and adoration 
of the highest — all require personality in God. As Professor 
William James said, "The universe is no longer a mere It 
to us, but a Thou if we are religious." 

O Lord our God, Thy greatness is unsearchable, and the 
glory of Thy presence has overwhelmed us. Thou art hidden 
in excess of light; and if we were to behold Thee in the great 
sphere in which Thou art living, none of us would dare to 
draw near to Thee. Our imperfections, our transgressions, 
our secret thoughts, our wild impulses, that at times come 
surging in upon us, are such that we should be ashamed to 
stand before the All-searching Eye. Our lives are before 
Thee, open as a book, and Thou readest every word and 
every letter thereof. Blessed be Thy name, Thou hast taught 
us to come to Thee through the Lord Jesus Christ as through 
a friend, and thou hast taught us to draw near to Thee in 
person through the familiar way of Fatherhood; from our 
childhood we have said, Our Father, and in this way we are 
not afraid; in this way we come familiarly and boldly: not 
irreverently, but with the familiarity which love gives. Thou 
hast poured the light of Thy love upon the path which we 
tread, and Thou hast taught us to come rejoicing before 
Thee. . . . Open Thy hand and Thy heart, and say to every 
one of us, Peace be unto you! Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 



COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 

1 

We have been using freely the most momentous word in 
human speech as though we clearly understood its meaning. 
We have been speaking of God as though the import of the 
term were plain. But most of us, asked to state precisely what 
we mean by "God," would welcome such a refuge from our 
confusion as Joubert sought. "It is not hard to know God," 
said he, "provided one will not force oneself to define him." 
Many people who stoutly claim to believe in God live in per- 
petual vacillation as to what they mean by him. Writes one : 

62 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

"God to my mind is an impersonal being, but whether for 
convenience or through sheer impotence I pray to him as a 
personal being ... I know I talk on both sides of the 
fence, but that is just where I am." 

At times, indeed, some question whether there is any need 
to think or say what "God" may signify. They call him by 
vague names — the All, the Infinite. In moods of exalted feel- 
ing, impatient of definition, they wish to be left alone with 
their experience of the Eternal ; they resent the intrusion of 
theology, as a poet, lost in wonder at a landscape, might resent 
the coming of surveyors with their clanking chains. So Walt 
Whitman wanted to see the stars rather than hear the astron- 
omer, and after listening to the learned lecture, with its charts 
and diagrams, he says, 

"I became tired and sick, 
Till rising and gliding out I wandered of! by myself, 
In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time 
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." 

I But, for all that, we well may be thankful for astronomers. 

At times the "mystical, moist night air" is absent ; we do not 
! wish to "look up in perfect silence at the stars"; and, even 

though we know in advance that they are bound to be inade- 
; quate, we do want as clear and worthy ideas as possible about 
I the universe. Moreover, when such ideas are ours, looking 
j up in perfect silence at the stars is more impressive than it 
! ever was before. No more can men content themselves with 
1 a vague consciousness of God. Spirits like Wordsworth have 

raptures of which they sing, 

"In such access of mind, in such high hour 
Of visitation from the living God, 
Thought was not — in enjoyment it expired." 

In communion with nature, in love for family, in fellowship 
with God, such hours may come, but nature, family, and God 
must also be the objects of understanding thought. Days of 
vital need, if not of mental doubt, inevitably come when it is 
impossible any longer to use a term like "God" without know- 
ing what we mean. 

The special urgency of this is felt by most of us because 
as children we were taught to picture the Divine in terms of 

63 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

personality. The God of the Bible is personal. Little that 
persons do, save sinning, is omitted from the catalogue of 
God's activities as he is pictured for us in the Scripture. He 
knows, loves, purposes, warns, rebukes, allures, rewards, and 
punishes, as only persons can. And all our relationships with 
him are clearly personal. When we pray we say "Our 
Father" ; when we seek our duty we ask, "What wilt thou 
have me to do?" God is He and Thou, not It, and friendship 
is the ideal relation of all souls with him. 

Moreover, in our maturity we are not likely to be inter- 
ested in a God who is not personal. Whoever curiously asks 
why he believes in God, will find not simply reasons but 
causes for his faith, and will perceive that the causes of faith 
lie back of the reasons for it. Vital need always precedes the 
arguments by which we justify its satisfaction. A man eats 
one thing and shuns another on principles of dietetics that can 
be defended before his intelligence; but behind all such 
sophisticated reasons stands the vital cause of eating — hunger. 
So back of intellectual arguments for belief in God lies the 
initial cause of faith : men are hungry. Men believe in God 
because they hunger for a world that is not chance and chaos, 
but that is guided by a Purpose. They believe in God, be- 
cause in their struggles after righteousness they hunger for 
a Divine Ally in whom righteousness has its origin, its ground 
and destiny. They believe in God, because they hunger for 
confidence that Someone cares about our race in its conflicts 
and defeats and because in their individual experience they 
want a friend. Without such faith man feels himself to be, 
in Goethe's phrase, "a troubled wanderer upon a darkened 
earth." Plainly this elemental human hunger for purpose, 
righteousness, and friendship calls for something akin to per- 
sonality in God. Only persons have purpose, character, and 
friendliness. The vital motives which lead men to seek God's 
comfort, forgiveness, guidance, and cooperation plainly imply 
his personality. Things do not forgive us, love us, nor pur- 
pose good concerning us, nor can any thing be imagined so 
subtle and so powerful as to satisfy the needs on account of 
which men come to God. If God is not personal, he can feel 
no concern for human life and a God of no concern is of no 
consequence. 

The philosophers of India, with a well-reasoned pantheistic 
system and centuries to make their philosophy effective, have 

64 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

failed to quell this deathless thirst for a God who counts. 
Every wayside shrine of Hinduism incarnates the old faith 
in gods conceived as friends, not things ; and Buddha, who 
taught impersonal deity, is now himself adored as the Per- 
sonal Lord of Love and Blessedness. Wherever one finds 
vital religion one finds that God is no dry impersonal ab- 
straction, but man's friend. Boscamen, speaking of the Egyp- 
tian Book of the Dead and of the Chaldean Tablets, says : 
"Six thousand years ago in Egypt and Chaldea — it is not 
dread, but the grateful love of a child to his father, of friend 
to friend, that meets us in the oldest books of the world." 
And when one turns from the oldest to the newest books this 
inner demand of man's religious life has not ceased; it has 
been refined and confirmed. "The All would not be the All 
unless it contained a Personality," said Victor Hugo. "That 
Personality is God." 

Biography is lavish in illustrations of this need in man's 
religious life. The biographer of Theodore Parker, the free- 
lance preacher of Boston, remarks : "In his theology God was 
• neither personal nor impersonal, but a reality transcending 
these distinctions. In his devotions God was as personal as 
his own father or mother, and he prayed to him as such, dar- 
ingly indifferent to the anthropomorphisms of his unfettered 
speech." When one passes from speculation to religion, he 
always comes into a realm where only a personal God will 
do. On this point even confessed unbelievers furnish con- 
firmation. One who calls himself an agnostic writes : "At 
i times in the silence of the night and in rare lonely moments, 
1 1 experience a sort of communion of myself with Something 
I Great that is not myself. Then the Universal Scheme of 
■things has on me the effect of a sympathetic Person, and my 
j communion therewith takes on a quality of fearless worship. 
'These moments happen, and they are to me the supreme fact 
Un my religious life." Always for the purposes of vital reli- 
■jgion, God must have on us the "effect of a sympathetic Per- 
son." 

' ■ ." 

When one, however, subjects this need of his religious 
jlife to searching thought, what difficulty he encounters ! Mul- 
titudes, if they were candid, would confess what a college 
senior wrote: "When I am just thinking about God in a 

I 6s 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

speculative or philosophical way, I generally think of him as 
impersonal, but for practical purposes I think of him as per- 
sonal " Many folks feel thus distraught ; at the heart of their 
religious life is the paralyzing doubt, that in a universe like 
this to think of God as personal is absurd. If a tram moving 
a mile a minute should leave the earth, it must travel 40,000,- 
000 years before it would reach the nearest star. The Creator 
of such a world is not readily reduced to the similitude of 
human life. Once men lived on a flat earth, small in compass 
and cosily tucked beneath the sky's coverlet, but now the 
world's vastness beggars imagination. As an astronomer re- 
marked, coming from a session with his telescope, This does 
away with a six-foot god; you cannot shake hands with the 
Creator of this." Men used; to suppose that Arcturus was a 
single star, but now new telescopes reveal Arcturus as a 
galaxy of stars, thousands in number, with interstellar spaces 
so immense that thought breaks down in spanning them and 
imagination even cannot make the leap. Is the God of such 
a universe to be conceived in terms of a magnified man? 

So to picture deity seems at first sight a survival of mere 
childishness. Professor John Fiske, of Harvard, has told us 
that when he was a boy God always conjured up in his 
imagination the figure of a venerable bookkeeper, with white 
flowing beard, standing behind a high desk and writing down 
the bad deeds of John Fiske. How many of us can recall 
such early crude and childish thoughts of God! A mother 
asked her young daugher what she was drawing. "A picture 
of God," was the answer. "But no one knows what God 
looks like/' the mother said. "They will," came the rejoinder, 
"when I get through." We all began with some such prim- 
itive idea of deity. Indeed, these early conceptions long per- 
sist in many minds, as the following statements, written by 
college students, indicate: "I think of God as real, actual 
skin and blood and bones, something we shall see with our 
eyes some day, no matter what lives we lead on earth." "It 
may be a remnant of youth, but anyhow, every time I think 
of God there appears a vague image of a man, with all mem- 
bers of the body, just enormously large." "I have always 
pictured him according to a description in Paradise Lost as 
seated upon a throne, while around are angels playing on 
harps and singing hymns." "I think of God as having bodily 
form and being much larger than the average man. He has 

66 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

a radiant countenance beaming with love and compassion. He 
is erect and upright, fearless and brave." 2 

No one of us may be contemptuous of such crude ideas ; 
we all possessed them once. Indeed the loss of them, with 
their picture of deity, clear in feature and distinct in outline, 
has been to some a shock from which faith has not recovered. 
When increasing knowledge discredited our immature theol- 
ogy, and our world immeasurably widened, the very human 
God of our first imaginations was lost among the stars. We 
learned that this is a universe where the light that falls upon 
our eyes tonight left the far heavens when Abraham was 
shepherding on Syrian hills. The Christian Gospel of the 
personal Father which once was good news became a serious 
problem. We still may cling to the old meanings of our reli- 
gious faith ; still we may pray in hours of need as though our 
childhood's God were really there; but at times we suspect 
that we are clinging to the beauty of an early memory while 
reluctantly we lose conviction of its truth. Many modern 
men and women can understand the plight of the famous Dr. 
Jowett of Oxford, who, so runs the tradition, inserted "used 
to" in a muffled voice, when he recited the creed : "I used to 
believe in God the Father Almighty.*' 

With such misgivings, whether as habitual disturbers of our 
faith or as occasional moods of unbelief that come and go, 
most of us must be familiar. What Charles Darwin is re- 
ported to have said about himself, many if they spoke frankly 
would say too : "Sometimes I feel a warm sense of a personal 
God, and then''' — with a shake of his head — "it goes away." 

Ill 

Whatever may be our theology, the fact is plain that the 
denial of a personal God solves no problem. For if we may 
not think of God in terms of personality, the query still 
remains, which was there before — in what terms shall we con- 
ceive of the Eternal? In a discussion on the nature of the 
i sky, one boy, denying the idea of a solid canopy, exclaimed, 
i "There ain't any sky." Said the other, seeing how little this 
negation solved the problem, "Well, what is it that ain't?" 
Some such inquiry one must put to his doubts about God's 



2 From a questionnaire, "Belie f in God and Immortality," by Prof . James 
H. Leuba. 

67 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

personality. Though we may deny a personal God, neverthe- 
less in the place where he once stood, creator and sustainer 
of all existence, is Something that we do think of somehow. 
We may have but little of Carlyle's sublime imagination ; 
may not easily transport ourselves to stand with him on the 
far northern cliff, "behind him all Europe and Africa fast 
asleep, except the watchmen, and before him the silent Im- 
mensity and Palace of the Eternal, whereof our sun is but 
the porch-lamp." Yet who of us, regarding the illimitable 
universe, on the far outskirts of which our little earth is 
whirling, so minute that through the strongest telescope from 
the nearest star its conflagration would be quite invisible, has 
escaped the sense of a Universal Power? And the human 
mind cannot so keep itself at home in little tasks and pleasures 
as to evade the question : How shall we think of the Power 
that made the universe? In what terms? By what analogies? 
Hours of revelation come in every serious life when no desire 
compares in urgency with the desire to know the character of 
the Eternal. It does make a prodigious difference what hands 
hold the leash of the universe. 

This second fact is also clear, that if we are to think of the 
Eternal at all, we must think in terms of something drawn 
from our experience. When we sing of Paradise we speak 
of golden streets and gates of pearl, and Thoreau remarks 
that, 'arriving in heaven, he expects to find pine trees there. 
Such words we do not take literally, but such words we can- 
not utterly avoid, for if we are to speak at all of the unknown 
glory, we must use pictures from the known. So we think of 
God in human symbols. We cannot catch him in an abstract 
definition as though a boy with a butterfly net should capture 
the sun at noon. Our minds are not fitted for such enterprise. 
Of necessity we take something homely, familiar, close at 
hand, and lifting it up as far as we can reach, say God is 
most like that. No one who thinks at all of the Eternal es- 
capes this necessity. 

By this method the materialist reaches his philosophy. 
Haeckel laughs to scorn the opening clause of the "Apostles' 
Creed." "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of 
heaven and earth" — for such faith no words are contemptu- 
ous enough. This denial does not mean however that Haeckel 
has no faith ; he deliberately offers a creedal substitute which 
runs in part: I believe in a "chemical substance of a viscous 

68 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

character, having albuminous matter and water as its chief 
constituents." In such terms does Haeckel think of the 
Eternal. A professor of medicine has remarked that such a 
theory reduces all reality to ''phosphorus and glue." When 
some Psalmist cries, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," nothing 
substantial is speaking or is being spoken to save phosphorus 
and glue! When an Italian patriot cries, "The time for dy- 
ing comes to all, but the time for dishonoring oneself ought 
never to come," nothing is real and causal save phosphorus 
and glue! And every gracious and redeeming deed in his- 
tory from the love of mothers to the cross of Christ has been 
a complicated working out of phosphorus and glue ! In what- 
ever labored phrases he may state his case, the materialist's 
method there is obvious; he has taken physical energy, of 
whose presence in his own body he is first assured, and whose 
reality he has then read out into the world, and this homely 
and familiar experience he has lifted up as far as he can 
reach to say, the Eternal is most like that. 

So far as method is concerned, the theist of necessity travels 
the same road; only he insists on a nobler symbol than phys- 
ical energy in terms of which to think of God. He takes 
mind. He says in effect: There may be wide stretches of the 
universe where our intellects meet no answer and find no 
meaning. But in much of the universe we do see meaning: 
and how can intelligence find sense where intelligence has not 
put sense? A few scratches on a cliff's face in Assyria, after 
centuries^ of neglect, rendered up their meaning to the mind 
of Rawlinson. They were themselves the work of intelli- 
gence, and intelligence could read them. So, the theist contin- 
ues, the universe is in part at least intelligible. Our minds 
fit into it and are answered by it. We can trace its laws and 
'predict its movements. Man first worked out the nature of 
: the ellipse in theoretical geometry, and then telescopes later 
1 showed the gigantic ellipses of planetary orbits in the heavens. 
Can it be that this intelligible world, readable by mind, is 
j itself essentially mindless? As easily believe that the notes of 
'Wagner's operas were accidentally blown together by a 
.whirlwind and yet are playable by man ! Therefore the theist 
^believes the universe to be rational ; he takes mind as he has 
known it in himself, and lifting it as high as he can reach, 
pies, God is most like that. 

] So far as the general method of approach is concerned, the 

69 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Christian travels the same road to his idea of God. Only he 
cannot believe that the best he knows is too good or too 
great to be a symbol in terms of which to think of the Eternal. 
Therefore he will not take a byproduct of experience such 
as physical energy, nor a section of personality such as mind; 
he takes the full orb of personality, self-conscious being that 
knows and purposes and loves, and he affirms that God is 
most like this. Such in its simplest form is the Christian 
assertion of God's personality. 

In one of his noblest passages Martineau has put into classic 
form this necessity, which we have been discussing, of think- 
ing about God in terms of human experience: "God, being 
infinite, can never be fully comprehended by our minds; 
whatever thought of him be there, his real nature must still 
transcend: there will yet be deep after deep beyond, withm 
that light ineffable; and what we see, compared with what 
we do not see, will be as the raindrop to the firmament. 
Our conception of him can never correspond with the reality, 
so as to be without omission, disproportion, or aberration; 
but can only represent the reality, and stand for God within 
our souls, till nobler thoughts arise and reveal themselves 
as his interpreters. And this is precisely what we mean 
by a symbolical idea. The devotee who prostrates him- 
self before a black stone— the Egyptian who in his prayers 
was haunted by the ideal form of the graceful ibis or the 
monstrous sphinx— the Theist who bends beneath the starry 
porch that midnight opens to the temple of the universe— 
the Christian who sees in heaven a spirit akin to that which 
divinely lived in Galilee, and with glorious pity died on Cal- 
vary—all alike assume a representation of him whose im- 
measurable nature they can neither compass nor escape. And 
the only question is, whether the conception they portray upon 
the wall of their ideal temple is an abominable idol, or a true 
and sanctifying mediatorial thought." 

IV 

In their endeavor thus to think of God in terms of person- I 
ality, some are perplexed because in their imagination a per- . 
son is inseparable from flesh. "I think of God as a personal U 
being," writes a college student. "A personal being would 
have a form that you could see or touch." But this would be 

70 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

true only if the grossest materialism were accepted, and the 
spiritual life declared to be the product of brain as digestive 
fluids are of salivary glands. On any other basis, person- 
ality is not indissolubly bound to body nor by it necessarily 
delimited. A man cannot hear without his ear, but he is not 
his ear; he cannot hear without the auditory nerve, but he 
is not the auditory nerve ; he cannot hear without the temporal 
lobe of the brain, but he is not the brain nor any portion 
of it. These may be the instruments which he uses ; he is 
free when they are well, hampered when they are broker^ 
and at last he is separable from them all. John Quincy Adams 
at the age of eighty met a friend upon a Boston street. "Good 
morning," said the friend, "and how is John Quincy Adams 

j today?" "Thank you," was the ex-president's reply, "John 

> Quincy Adams himself is well, quite well, I thank you. But 

! the house in .which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. 
It is tottering upon its foundation. Time and the seasons 
have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out. 

I Its walls are much shattered and it trembles with every 
wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable 

| and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it 
soon. But he himself is quite well, quite well." Such a con- 

i ception of man as being a permanent personality and having 
a temporary body is essential to any worthy meaning when we 
use personal terms about God. 

With such an elevated thought, however, of what person- 
ality does mean, it soon is evident that no other reality with 
which we deal is so worthy to be the symbol of an Eternal 
Spirit. Is one perplexed that God, who is invisible, should 
be pictured in the similitude of human persons? But we are 
invisible. The outward husks and fleshly garment of our 
friends we indeed have seen, but upon the friend himself — 
consciousness, love, purpose, ideal, and character — no eye has 
looked. No mirror ever has been strong enough to show us 
to ourselves. In every homely conversation this ineffable mir- 
acle is wrought : out of the unseen where I dwell, I signal by 
word and gesture to you back in the unseen where you dwell. 

! We are inhabitants now of the intangible and unseen world; 

I we are as invisible as God. 

Indeed, personality is essentially the most unlimited reality 

I with which we deal; in comparison a solar system is a little 

| thing. Consider memory, by which we can retrace our youth- 

71 



t'lll-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

ful days, build our shanties once again at brooksides, replay 
<our games, and recapitulate the struggles and the joys of the 
first days at school. Nothing in all the universe can remem- 
ber except persons. Were we not so familiar with this ele- 
ment in human greatness, we would more often pause to ex- 
claim, as did Augustine, fifteen centuries ago, "Great is the 
power of memory. Amazement overcomes me when I think 
of it. And yet men go abroad to gaze upon the mountains, the 
broad rivers, the wide ocean, the courses of the stars, and pass 
themselves, the crowning wonder, by !" Consider imagination, 
by which, sitting still in body we can project ourselves around 
the world, can walk down Princes Street in Edinburgh, or 
stand in mingled awe and condemnation before the tomb of 
Napoleon in Paris, or rise uncovered before the majesty of 
the Matterhorn. Nothing in all the universe can do that 
except persons. Were full power to act wherever we can 
think added to our gifts, we should come so near to incipient 
omnipresence as to be in dread of our responsibility. Con- 
sider love, by which we live not so much where our bodies are 
3.3 where our friends and family may be. Love expands the 
individual until his real life is independent of geography. 
Says one lover to another: 

"The widest land 
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine 
With pulses that beat double." 

Many a mother in America has lived in the trenches of 
France; many a man has found that what might happen to 
him where his body was could not be compared with what 
might happen to him where his friendships were; and as we 
grow in love and loyalty we find ourselves scattered all over 
creation. How far such an expansion of life may go our 
Lord revealed when he said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of these, my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." 
(Matt. 25 : 40.) Nothing in heaven above or on the earth 
beneath can so extend itself in love save persons. 

Finally, consider creative power by which human beings 
project themselves into the future, and, with masterful ideals 
in mind, lay hold on circumstance and bend it to their will. 
As if he shared creative power with the Eternal, an engineer 
summons nature's forces to his bidding and lays his will upon 

72 






FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

them, until where nothing was a structure stands that mankind 
may use for centuries. Nothing in all the universe can so 
create except persons. In that essentially creative act where 
deathless ideas and harmonies are given being by poets and 
musicians, so that something out of nothing is brought to pass 
by personality, man faces a mystery as abysmal as God's mak- 
ing of the world. "Paradise Lost" is wonderful; but not 
half as wonderful as the creative personality itself who years 
before projected it. "An inward prompting," Milton says, 
"which now grew daily upon me, that by labor and intense 
study, joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might 
perhaps leave something so written to after times as they 
should not willingly let it die." Nothing can so create save 
personality. 

Personality is not so limited that we should be ashamed to 
think of God in terms of it. Rather, of all realities with which 
we deal, personality alone, invisible, reaching back in memory, 
reaching out in imagination, expanding itself in love, and 
laying hold upon .the future with creative power, is a worthy 
symbol of the Eternal Spirit. 

Even when the meaning of personality has been so en- 
larged and elevated, we should not leave our statement of 
belief in God as though our experience of personality were a 
mould into which our thought of him is poured and so delim- 
ited. We are not presumptuous Lilliputians, running out with 
verbal stakes and threads, to pin down the tall, majestic 
Gulliver of the Eternal and dance in theological exultation 
round our capture. We know better than that. We under- 
stand how insufficient is every human name for God. We 
know that when we have said our best — "How unsearchable 
are his judgments and his ways past tracing out!" (Rom. 
11:33)- 

Nothing more has marred the Christian message and dis- 
credited the Christian faith than the unwise presumption that 
has forced its definitions into the secrets of the Infinite. "It 
is enough to say," exclaims Leslie Stephen, "that they de- 
fined the nature of God Almighty with an accuracy from 
which modest naturalists would shrink in describing the 
genesis of a black beetle." The antidote to v such vain pride of 
theology is found in the wholesome modesty of the Bible. 
There man enquires, "Canst thou by searching find out God? 
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high 

73 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

as heaven ; what canst thou do ? Deeper than Sheol ; what 
canst thou know?" (Job 11:7). There God replies: "As the 
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher 
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 
55-9)- Scripture bears abundant testimony to the symbolic 
nature of our human terms for God. "Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him" (Psalm 
103:13). "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I 
comfort you" (Isa. 66:13). "I will betroth thee unto me" 
(Hos. 2:20). "Return, . . . saith Jehovah, for I am a 
husband unto you" (Jer. 3: 14). "The Lord spake unto 
Moses . . . as a man speaketh unto, his friend" (Ex. 
33:11). Father, Mother, Bridegroom, Husband, Friend — 
these are symbols of God. Men, endeavoring to frame some 
worthy thought of the Eternal, lift up their best in phrases 
such as these, and in them enshrine their noblest concepts of 
the divine. They have no better, truer thing to say of God, 
no wiser way in which to say it. But when they think of the 
Eternal as he must be, and of their human words, infinitesimal 
in comparison, they know that all their best names for God 
are like small measures of water dipped from an immeasur- 
able sea. For all that, so much of God as they can grasp and 
Understand is the most important truth that mankind knows. 
Let even a tea-cup of water be taken to a laboratory and it 
will tell the truth about the sea; that one tea-cup will reveal 
the quality of the whole' ocean. Yet it will not reveal all the 
truth about the ocean. When one considers the reach of the 
sea over the rim of the world; thinks of the depths that no eye 
can pierce, the distances that no mind can imagine; remembers 
the currents that sweep through the sea, the tides that rise 
there, and the storms that beat it to its nether wells, he dare 
no try to put these into a tea-cup. So God sweeps out be- 
yond the reach of human symbols. At once so true and so 
inadequate are all our words for him. 

So we might speak to one who incredulously looks upon 
our faith, but for one who whole-heartedly approaches God 
as Christianity suggests, no negative and cautionary word is 
adequate. The Christian method of conceiving God brings 
the most exhilarating thought of him that man has ever had. 
It says in brief : Take your best and think of God as most 
truly symbolized in that. As to what our best is, not even the 
agnostics doubt. The physical universe belittles us on one 

74 



FAITH IN THE PERSONAL GOD [III-c] 

side only; it makes a pigmy of the body. In our spirits we 
still tower above the physical ; we are greater than the world 
we know. Our supreme good, the divinest reality with which 
we deal, is personality. Then lift that up, says Christianity; 
it is your best, and you dare not think of God in terms of less ; 
you have Christ's example in arguing from the human best 
to the divine : "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, hozv much more . . . your Father." 
(Matt. 7: 11.) 

The Christian faith asserts that when a man thus thinks 
of God in terms of the best he knows he is on the road toward 
truth. How many billion spiritual miles he may have to travel 
to the end, no man can tell. Only he will never need to stop, 
retrace his steps, and start upon a lower path than person- 
ality, a road that lies beneath righteousness and love. The 
road leads on and up beyond our imagination, but it is the 
same road and not another. God is personality plus, or else 
he alone is completely personal and we are but in embryo. 

If God so is personal, then all the deep meanings of reli- 
gious life and faith that the saints, our spiritual sires, have 
known are open to us modern men and women. Forms of 
thought indeed have changed, but if God is thus our Father 
and our Friend, the essentials of Christian experience are 
waiting for us all. Life then is not purposeless ; all creation 
is bound into spiritual unity by personal Will ; and in sacri- 
ficial labor we are serving one who is able to guard that which 
we "have committed unto him against that day" (II Tim. 
1 : 12). Old hymns of confidence in time of trial, we too can 
sing: 

"Still will we trust, though earth seem dark and dreary, 
And the heart faint beneath His chastening rod; 
Though steep and hard our pathway, worn and weary, 
Still will we trust in God." 

And we can pray, not indeed with clamorous beggary as 
though the grace of God were a wayside stall where every 
greedy hand can pluck what passing whim may wish, but we 
can commune with God as the real saints have always prayed 
with humility and gratitude and confident desire for good. 
Most of all, that priceless privilege is open to us which is the 
center and sun of Christian thought and life. For if among 

> 75 



[III-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

all realities in our experience, we have dared take the best, 
personality, as a symbol in terms of which to think of God, 
how should we not, among all personalities, take the best we 
know as the highroad of approach to him. Therefore our 
real symbol of God shall be no man among us, frail and sin- 
ful, but our Lord himself "fairest among ten thousand" — 
"the one altogether beautiful/' We shall think of God in 
terms of him. We shall see "the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6.) 






76 



CHAPTER IV 

Belief and Trust 

DAILY READINGS 

We have tried to explain our faith in the personal God, 
and to see the transfiguring influence of that faith on life. 
But is belief in God always such a blessing as we have pic- 
tured? Rather faith, like every other experience of man, 
has its caricatures and burlesques. Many men are prevented 
from appreciation of faith in God, with its inestimable bless- 
ings, because they have so continually seen faith's per- 
versions. The fact is that belief in God may be an utterly 
negligible matter in a man's experience or may even become 
a positively pernicious influence. Let us, in the daily read- 
ings, consider some of the familiar travesties on faith. 

Fourth Week, First Day 

Praise ye Jehovah. 

Praise Jehovah, O my soul. 

While I live will I praise Jehovah: 

I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 

Put not your trust in princes, 

Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; 

In that very day his thoughts perish. 

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 

Whose hope is in Jehovah his God. 

— Psalm 146: 1-5. 

No one can mistake the note of reality in this psalmist's 
experience of God, But every one of us knows people who, 
if asked whether they believed in God, would readily assent, 
yet to whom faith makes no such difference in life as this 
psalm expresses. Their faith is nothing but an opinion about 
God, lightly held, a formal consent that what church or family 
tradition says must be correct. They have what Luther used 

77 



[IV-i] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

to call "the charcoal burner's faith." A man of that occupa- 
tion, when asked what he believed, said, "What Holy Church 
believes" ; but, questioned further, he could not tell what it 
was that Holy Church did believe. So formal, vitally unpos- 
sessed, and practically unreal is much of our religious opinion 
that passes for faith. Dean Swift was a churchman of high 
rank, and yet his biographer is compelled to say of him : "He 
clung to the doctrines of his church, not because he could 
give abstract reasons for his belief, but simply because the 
church happened to be his." Vital religious faith is a very' 
different thing from such dry conventionality. A man may 
assent to the contents of a college catalogue and yet never 
have experience of college life ; he may agree that a menu 
is dietetically correct and yet never grow strong from the 
food ; and he may believe in every creed in Christendom and 
not know what faith in God really means. Opinions about 
God are a roadway to God, but the end of the journey is 
a personal fellowship that transfigures life; and to seize 
opinions as though they were the object of faith is, to use 
Tagore's figure, "like a man who tries to reach his destina- 
tion by firmly clutching the dust of the road." 

O Thou great Father of us all, we rejoice that at last we 
know Thee. All our soul within us is glad because we 
need no longer cringe before Thee as slaves of holy fear, 
seeking to appease Thine anger by sacrifice and self-inflicted 
pain, but may come like little children, trustful and happy, 
to the God of love. Thou art the only true Father, and all 
the tender beauty of our human loves is the reflected radiance 
of Thy loving kindness, like the moonlight from the sunlight, 
and testifies to the eternal passion that kindled it. 

Grant us growth of spiritual vision, that with the passing 
years we may enter into the fulness of this our faith. Since 
Thou art our Father, may we not hide our sins from Thee, 
but overcome them by the stem comfort of Thy presence. 
By this knowledge uphold us in our sorrows and -make us 
patient even amid the unsolved mysteries of the years. 
Reveal to us the larger goodness and love that speak through 
the unbending laws of Thy world. Through this faith make 
us the willing equals of all Thy other children. 

As Thou art ever pouring out Thy life in sacrificial father- 
love, may we accept the eternal law of the cross and give 

78 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-2] 

ourselves to Thee and to all men. We praise Thee for Jesus 
Christ, whose life has revealed to us this faith and law, and 
we rejoice that he has become the first-born among many 
brethren. Grant that in us, too, the faith in Thy fatherhood 
may shine through all our life with such persuasive beauty 
that some who still creep in the dusk of fear may stand erect 
as free sons of God, and that others who now through un- 
belief are living as orphans in an empty world may stretch 
out their hands to the great Father of their spirits and find 
Thee near. Amen. — Walter Rauschenbusch. 

Fourth Week, Second Day 

Faith is travestied in many lives not so much by the sub- 
stitution of opinion for experience, as by making religion 
consist in certain devout practices, such as church-going. 
Ceremonialism, instead of being an aid in making God real, 
takes the place of fellowship with God. How scathing were 
the attacks of the prophets on this distortion of religion ! 

Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give 
ear unto the lav/ of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 
What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith 
Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of 
rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the 
blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye 
come to appear before me, who hath required this at your 
hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain obla- 
tions; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and 
sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot away with 
iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and 
your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble 
unto me; I am weary of bearing them. And when ye 
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; 
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your 
hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; 
put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; 
cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the 
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. — 
Isa. 1: 10-17. 

Many young people, watching conventional observances in 
religious worship and perceiving no real life active there, 
come to the conclusion that religious faith is a decent and 
negligible formality. So William Scott Palmer, tracing his 

79 






[IV-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

progress from agnosticism to Christianity, describes the reli- 
gion of his boyhood : "Religion as a personal matter, religion 
as a life, did not exist for me or for my family. The border- 
land of my native village went to church at eleven o'clock 
on fine Sundays, and I went in and with it. There were 
unlucky Sundays when the Litany was said, and the service 
prolonged by its unmeaning length; the lucky Sundays were 
wet ones that cleared up later. ... I did not know that 
there was any vital meaning in religion." And even Sir 
Wilfred Grenfell, whose work in Labrador is one of this 
generation's outstanding triumphs of Christian faith, says 
of his young manhood: "The ordinary exponents of the 
Christian faith had never succeeded in interesting me in any 
way, or even in making me believe that they were more than 
professionally concerned themselves. Religion appeared to 
be a profession, exceedingly conventional, and most unat- 
tractive in my estimation — the very last I should have thought 
of selecting." No travesty on faith is more deadly in its 
effects than this substitution of conventional observance for 
life. 

O Jesus, we thy ministers bow before Thee to confess the 
common sins of our calling. Thou knowest all things; Thou 
knowest that we love Thee and that our hearts' desire is to 
serve Thee in faithfulness; and yet, like Peter, we have so 
often failed Thee in the hour of Thy need. If ever we have 
loved our own leadership and power when we sought to lead 
our people to Thee, we pray Thee' to forgive. If we have 
been engrossed in narrow duties and little questions, when 
the vast needs of humanity called aloud for prophetic vision 
and apostolic sympathy, we pray Thee to forgive. If in our 
loyalty to the Church of the past we have distrusted Thy 
living voice and have suffered Thee to pass from our door 
unheard, we pray Thee to forgive. If ever we have been 
more concerned for the strong and the rich than for the 
shepherdless throngs of the people for whom Thy soul 
grieved, we pray Thee to forgive. 

O Master, amidst our failures we cast ourselves upon Thee 
in humility and contrition. We need new light and a new 
message. We need the ancient spirit of prophecy and the 
leaping fire and joy of a new conviction, and Thou alone 
canst give it. Inspire the ministry of Thy Church with 

80 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-3] 

dauntless courage to face the vast needs of the future. Free 
us from all entanglements that have hushed our voice and 
bound our action. Grant us grace to look upon the veiled 
sins of the rich and the coarse vices of the poor through 
Thine eyes. Give us Thine inflexible sternness against sin, and 
Thine inexhaustible compassion for the frailty and tragedy 
of those who do the sin. Make us faithful shepherds of Thy 
Hock, true seers of God, and true followers of Jesus. Amen. 
— Walter Rauschenbusch. 

Fourth Week, Third Day 

And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted 
in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others 
at nought: Two men went up into the temple to pray; 
the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee 
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, 
that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, 
adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the 
week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, 
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou 
merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, This man went 
down to his house justified rather than the other: for 
every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but 
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. — Luke 18: 9-14. 

The men against whom the Master directed this parable 
were bigots. Self-opinionated, self-conceited, dogmatic, and 
contemptuous — they wore all the attributes of bigotry. And 
bigotry is a very familiar perversion of faith. Vital fellow- 
ship with God ought to make men gracious, magnanimous, 
generous ; it ought to make life with God seem so incom- 
parably important that when anyone has that, his opinions 
about God will be tolerantly regarded, however mistaken they 
may appear to be. Dr. Pritchett, when President of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, parsed through a classroom 
where a young instructor was conducting a chemical experi- 
ment. "The reaction itself," says Dr. Pritchett, "was going 
on in a retort on the table, while on a blackboard was written 
the conventional formula, which in the science of chemistry 
is used to describe the reaction. It so happened that the 
instructor had made a mistake in writing the formula; in- 
stead of CO 2 he had written CO3. But this made not the 

81 



[IV-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

slightest difference in the reaction which was going on in 
the flask." So, a man may live his life with an admirably 
Christian spirit, although he describes it with a mistaken 
formula. His error is theoretical, not vital. But a bigot is 
so sure that he alone knows the true formula, that a man 
without that formula is altogether wrong, and that he must 
either set him right or condemn him utterly, that he grows 
bitter, hard, unlovely. His opinions may be right, but his 
spirit is wrong. The faith that should make his life radiant 
is perverted to make it narrow, harsh, contemptuous. He 
renders hateful the very faith he seeks to commend and 
ruins the reputation of the God whom he is zealous to exalt. 
So the Pharisee of the parable missed all the beauty of the 
Publican's life because he thought the Publican's formula 
was wrong. No one can estimate the irreparable damage 
which zealous bigots have done to true faith. 



O Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, 
canst Thou bear to look on us conscious of our great trans- 
gression? Yet hide not Thy face from us, for in Thy light 
alone shall we see light. 

Forgive us for the sins which crowd into the mind as we 
realize Thy presence ; our ungovernable tempers, our shuffling 
insincerities, the craven fear of our hearts, the pettiness of 
our spirits, the foul lusts and fatal leanings of our souls. 
Not for pardon only, but for cleansing, Lord, we pray. 

Forgive us, we beseech Thee, our unconscious sins; things 
which must be awful fo Thy sight, of which we yet know 
nothing. Forgive by giving us in fuller measure the awaken- 
ing of Thy presence, that we may know ourselves, and lose 
all love of sin in the knowledge of what Thou art. 

Forgive us for the things for which zve can never forgive 
ourselves; those sad turned pages of our life which some 
chance wind of memory blows back again with shame; for 
the moment of cruel passien, the hour beyond recall, the word 
that went forth to poison and defame, the carelessness that 
lost our opportunity, the unheeded fading of bright ideals. 

Forgive us for the things that others can never forgive; 
the idle tale, the cruel wrong, the uncharitable condemnation, 
the unfair judgment, the careless criticism, the irresponsible 
conduct. 

Forgive us for the sins of our holy things; that we have 

82 






BELIEF AND TRUST [IV -4} 

turned the sacred page without a sigh, read the confessions 
of holy men and women and never joined therein, lived in 
Thy light and never prayed to be forgiven or rendered Thee 
thanksgiving ; professed to believe in Thee and love Thee, 
yet dared to injure and hate. 

Naught save being bom again, nothing but a miracle of 
grace, can ever be to us forgiveness. Cleanse our hearts, 
renew our minds, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. 
Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Fourth Week, Fourth Day 

Of all perversions of faith none is more fatal than the 
substitution of opinions about God for integrity of character 
and usefulness of -life. With what scathing vehemence does 
James, as Dr. Moffatt renders him, attack this travesty on 
faith. 

"My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has 
faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save 
him? Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short 
of daily food ; if any of you says to them, 'Depart in peace ! 
Get warm, get food,' without supplying their bodily needs, 
what use is that? So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead 
in itself. Someone will object, 'And you claim to have 
faith!' Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show 
me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by 
my deeds what faith is ! You believe in one God ? Well 
and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. But will 
you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds 
is dead? When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac 
on the altar, was ne not justified by what he did?" — James 2: 
14-21. 

An American business man not long dead, who hated any 
word from the pulpit about social righteousness, used to 
complain : "Preachers are talking so everlastingly about this 
earth. I've done my best to get them to stick to the Gospel, 
and not allow 'worldliness' to get into the teachings of the 
Church ; but the good old preachers have gone to glory." 
Yet this pious zealot helped wreck the finances of a great 
railroad system, and with part of the proceeds built a theo- 

83 



[IV-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

logical seminary. There was no vital, intelligent connection 
between his faith in God and his ideals of character and serv- 
ice. One verse should be made to flame in Christian pulpits : 
"If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own 
household, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an un- 
believer" (I Tim. 5:8). Domestic fidelity is here only typical 
of all basic moral obligations. What this verse says in 
principle is clear : theoretical unbelief is not the worst sin 
in God's sight; any man who fails in the fundamental duties 
of rectitude and service has thereby denied the faith and is 
worse than an atheist. 

O thou holy One and just! if alone the pure in heart can 
see thee, truly we must stand afar off, and not so much as 
lift up our eyes unto heaven. Were it not that thou hast 
help and pity for the contrite spirit, we could only cry, "De- 
part from us, we are sinful men, O Lord!" For idle words, 
for proud thoughts and unloving deeds; for wasted moments 
and reluctant duties, and too eager rest; for the wandering 
desire, the vain fancy, the scornful doubt, the untrustful 
care; for impatient murmurs, and unruly passions, and the 
hardness of a worldly heart; thou, Lord, canst call us unto 
judgment, and we have naught to answer thee. But, O thou 
Judge of men, thou art witness that we do not love our guilty 
ways; make our conscience true and tender that we may 
duly hate them, and refuse them any peace as enemies to 
thee. Stir up within us a great and effectual repentance that 
we may redeem the time which we have lost, and in the 
hours that remain may do the work of many days. Thou 
knowest all our secret snares; drive from us every root of 
bitterness: with thy severity pluck out, O Lord, the thorns 
of sin from our entangled souls, and bind them as a crown 
of contrition around our bleeding brozvs; and having made 
our peace with thee may we henceforth watch and pray that 
we enter not again into temptation, but bear our cross with 
patience to the close. Amen. — James Martineau. 

Fourth Week, Fifth Day 

Some of the most lamentable perversions of religious faith 
arise from inadequate ideas of God. Consider, for example, 
the way Manasseh thought that the Divine ought to be wor- 
shiped. 

84 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-5] 

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his 
father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, 
and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and 
worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And 
he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah 
said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built 
altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the 
house of Jehovah. And he made his son to pass through 
the fire, and practised augury, and used enchantments, 
and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with 
wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, 
to provoke him to anger. — II Kings 21: 3-6. 

Then compare the thought of the Master on the same 
subj ect. 

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for 
such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God 
is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in 
spirit and truth. — John 4: 23, 24. 

There is no reason to suppose that Manasseh was insincere ; 
he is one of an innumerable company in whom the religious 
motive has been harnessed to warped and ignorant ideas of 
God. Religious faith, like any other tremendous power, is 
terrific in evil consequences when it goes wrong. Men, under 
its subtle and prevailing influence, have waged bloody wars, 
worshiped with licentious rituals, carried on pitiless persecu- 
j tions, and in bigotry, cruelty, and deceit have grown worse 
than they would have been with no religion whatsoever. And 
J men, in its inspiring light, have launched missionary move- 
| ments, founded great philanthropies, built schools, hospitals, 
1 orphanages, and in sacrifice, courageous service, and hope 
of human brotherhood have made man's history glorious. 
Religion needs intelligence to save it from becoming a ruin- 
ous curse ; like all power of the first magnitude it is a disaster 
if ignorantly used. Since religious faith will always be a 
major human motive, under what obligations are we to save 
it from perversion and to keep it clean and right ! 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we are most unworthy 
to be called Thy children; for when light and darkness have 
been set before us, we have often chosen darkness rather 
than light. Conscious that within us are the elements of a 

85 



[IV-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

nobler and a meaner life, we have yet given way to the 
meaner appetites, and have not obeyed the inspiration Thou 
hast kindled within us. We entreat Thee now of Thy grace 
to call us back from the zvays of temptation and sin into 
that higher life which Thou dost breathe upon us, and which 
is manifested in lesus Christ our Lord. Give us the self- 
knowledge, the humility, the repentance, the aspiration which 
draw us to the Cross of Christ, that worshiping there in 
lowliness, we may see the weakness of falsehood and the 
strength of truth, the exceeding sinfulness of selfishness, and 
the beauty of love and sacrifice. 

O Thou whose secret is with them that fear Thee, inspire 
us with that loyalty of soul, that willingness to do Thy will 
to which all things are clear. Darkness, we know, cometh 
upon the proud and disobedient; confusion is ever attendant 
upon self-will; while to the humble, the earnest, and the pure- 
minded, the way of duty and spiritual health is made clear. 
O Spirit of the Eternal, subdue within us all pride, all vain- 
glory, all self-seeking, and bring every thought and every 
desire into obedience to the law of Christ our Lord. 

Almighty Father, to Thee would we consecrate these earthly 
days from infancy to age. Thee would we remember in 
childhood and youth. Thee would we serve in all the rela- 
tions and activities of middle age. Thee would we teach our 
children to love and serve. Be Thou our stay and hope when 
health and strength shall fail. And when we are summoned 
hence, do Thou, O Life of our life, illumine the mystery of 
the invisible world with Thy presence and love. We ask 
these blessings in the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
— John Hunter. 

Fourth Week, Sixth Day 

The perversions of religious faith, working pitiable in- 
stead of benevolent consequences, are often seen on mission 
fields. Consider Paul's address in Athens : 

And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and 
said, 

Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are 
very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the 
objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this 
inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What there- 

86 






BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-6] 

fore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. 
The God that made the world and all things therein, he, 
being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples 
made with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, 
as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth 
to all life, and breath, and all things; and he made of one 
every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, 
having determined their appointed seasons, and the 
bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, 
if haply they might feel after him and find him, though 
he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live, and 
move, and have our being; as certain even of your own 
poets have said, 

For we are also his offspring. 

— Acts 17: 22-28. 

Paul did not need to plead for religion with the Athenians ; 
they were already "very religious." Only religion was not 
doing for them what it ought; it was a power used "in 
ignorance" ; and Paul, valuing all that was good there, quot- 
ing their own poets with appreciation, nevertheless longed 
to take their strong religious motives and so clarify and direct 
them that faith might mean unqualified benediction. Is not 
this always the right missionary method? The people of India 
are intensely religious ; no tribe in Africa lacks its gods ; 
and everywhere the faith-motive is immensely powerful. But 
often it makes mothers drown their babies in sacred rivers, 
it consecrates caste systems as holy things, it centers man's 
adoration around unworthy objects, its powers, gone wrong, 
are a curse and not a blessing. If in Jesus Christ religious 
faith has come to us, through no merit of our own, as an 
unspeakable benediction, ought we not, humbly, without dog- 
matism or intolerance, and yet with passionate earnestness, 
to share our best with all the world? Religious faith may 
either depress or lift a people's life; it is forever doing one 
or the other in every nation under heaven; and there is no 
hope for the world until this master-motive is lifting every- 
where. 

Almighty God, our Father in heaven, who hast so greatly 
loved the world that Thou hast given Thine only-begotten 
Son, the Redeemer, communicate Thy love to the hearts of 
all believers, and revive Thy Church to preach the Gospel to 
every creature. 

87 






[IV-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

O Thou who rulest by Thy providence over land and sea, 
defend and guide and bless the messengers of Christ; in 
danger be their shield, in darkness be their hope ; enrich their 
word and work with wisdom, joy, and power, and let them 
gather souls for Thee in far fields white unto the harvest. 

O Thou who by Thy Holy Spirit workest wonders in secret, 
open the eyes that dimly look for light to see the day-star 
in Christ; open the minds that seek the unknown God to 
know their Heavenly Father in Christ; open the hearts that 
hunger for righteousness to find eternal peace in Christ. De- 
liver the poor prisoners of ignorance and captives of idolatry, 
break down the bars of error, and dispel the shadows of the 
ancient night; lift up the gates, and let the King of glory 
and the Prince of Peace come in. 

Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom. 
Strengthen Thy servants to pray and labor and wait for it. 
appearing; forgive our little faith and the weakness of out 
endeavor; hasten the day when all nations shall be at peace 
in Thee, and every land and every heart throughout the world 
shall bless the name of the Lord Jesus, to the glory of God 
the Father. Amen. — Henry van Dyke. 



Fourth Week, Seventh Day 

The sad perversions of religious faith are not a matter 
for foreign missions only. At home, too, we find people who 
seem to be rather worse than better because they are religious. 
Just as power in any other form may be abused, so may 
religious faith. Some in the name of religion become censori- 
ous and intolerant, some superstitious, some slaves to morbid 
fears ; and ignorance, self-conceit, pride, and worldly ambi- 
tion when driven and enforced by a religious motive are 
infinitely worse than they would have been without it. To- 
ward this fact two attitudes are possible. One is to throw 
over religion on account of its abuses ; which is as reason- 
able as to* deny all the blessings of electricity because in 
ignorant hands it is a dangerous power. The other is to take 
religious faith more seriously than ever, to see how great a 
force for weal or woe it always is in human life, and to 
strive in ourselves and in others for a high, intelligent, and 
worthy understanding and use of it. For religion can mean 
what Amiel said of it: "There is but one thing needful— to 

8$ 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-7] 

possess God. Religion is not a method: it is a life — a higher 
and supernatural life, mystical in its root and practical in 
its fruits ; a communion with God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, 
a love which radiates, a force which acts, a happiness which 
overflows." From our study of the perversions and travesties 
of faith, we turn therefore in the weekly comment to con- 
sider faith's vital meanings. So Paul, writing to the Galatians, 
rejoices in religion as a gloriously transforming power in 
life. 

But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil 
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are con- 
trary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things 
that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are 
not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are mani- 
fest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, 
factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revel- 
lings, and such like; of which I forewarn you even as I 
did forewarn you, that they who practise such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of 
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, 
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against 
such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus 
have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts 
thereof. — Gal. 5: 16-23. 

Thou, O God, hast exalted us so that no longer we walk 

with prone head among the animals that perish. Thou hast 

ordained us as Thine own children, and hast planted within 

\ us that spiritual life which ever seeks, as the flame, to rise 

\ upward and mingle with Thee. Every exaltation, every pure 

sentiment, all urgency of true affection, and all yearning after 

things higher and nobler, are testimonies of the divinity that 

is in us. These are the threads by which Thou art drawing 

us away from sense, away from the earth, away from things 

coarse and unspiritual, and toward the ineffable. We rejoice 

that we have in us the witness of the Spirit, the indwelling 

•< of God. For, although we are temples defiled, though we 

« are unworthy of such a Guest, and though we perpetually 

grieve Thee, and drive Thee from us, so that Thou canst not 

I do the mighty work that Thou wouldst within us, yet we re- 

1 joice to believe that Thou dost linger near us. Even upon 

89 



[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

the outside, Thou standest knocking at the door until Thy 
locks are wet with the night dews, and dost persuade us with 
the everlasting importunity of love, and draw us upward, 
whether with or without our own knowledge. Thou art 
evermore striving to imbue us with Thyself, and to give us 
that divine nature which shall triumph over time and sense 
and matter; and we pray that we may have an enlightened 
understanding of this Thy work in us and upon us, and work 
together with Thee. Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 

One might be tempted by the last chapter to suppose that, 
if he could accept the proposition that God is personal, he 
would be well upon his way toward Christianity. But in 
theory at least Plato accepted this proposition four hundred 
years before Christ, when he said : "God is never in any way 
unrighteous — He is perfect righteousness ; and he of us who 
is most righteous is most like Him." He, too, used person- 
ality as a symbol of God. When, however, one compares 
Plato with Jesus, how incalculably greater is the religious 
meaning of our Lord ! There is something more in the 
Master's experience and thought than the belief that God is 
personal. Evidently our quest must be followed further than 
the last chapter carried us. 

In Scripture two kinds -of faith in the personal God are 
clearly indicated. On the one side stand verses such as this 
"Thou believest that God is one ; thou doest well ; the demons 
also believe and shudder" (James 2:19). On the other, one 
finds through both the Testaments witness and appeal for a 
kind of faith that plainly differs from the first: "O my God, 
in thee have I trusted" (Psalm 25:2). It is not difficult to 
guess the terms in which many would describe this difference. 
In the first, so the familiar explanation runs, we are dealing 
with the mind's faith in God ; the man's intellect assents to 
the belief that God is and that He is one. In the second we 
are dealing with the heart's faith in God; the whole man is 
here involved in an adoring trust that finds in reliance upon 
God life's stimulus and joy. 

This distinction between the faith of the intellect and of the 
heart is valid, but it does not go to the pith of the truth. When 

90 






! 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-c] 

a professor in the class-room, discussing conflicting theories 
of life's origin, concludes that theism is the reasonable inter- 
pretation of the universe, the listener understands that the 
lecturer believes in God's existence. But if the professor 
could be followed home and overheard in a private prayer, 
like Fenelon's : "Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of 
Thee ; Thou only knowest what I need ; Thou lovest me better 
than I know how to love myself. O Father ! give to Thy child 
that which he himself knows not how to ask," something in- 
calculably more than the classroom talk disclosed would be 
revealed about the meaning of the teacher's faith. And as 
the classroom lecture and the private prayer stand so con- 
trasted, the gist of the difference is plain. In the one, faith 
was directed toward a theory; in the other faith laid hold 
upon a Person. That the intellect was more involved in the 
first and the emotions in the second is incidental to the main 
matter, that tzvo differing objects were in view. Toward 
these two objects we continually are exercising faith — ideas 
and people, propositions and persons. 

Now faith in a proposition we conveniently may call be- 
lief ; and faith in a person, trust. We believe that gravitation 
and the conservation of energy universally apply, that de- 
mocracy will prove better than absolutism, and that prison 
systems can be radically reformed; these and innumerable 
other propositions that cannot be demonstrated we confidently 
believe. But in quite another way we daily are exercising 
faith; we have faith in our friends. How profound a change 
comes over the quality and value of faith when it thus finds 
its objective in a person! Our beliefs in propositions are of 
basic import and without them we could not well exist, but 
it is by trust in persons that we live indeed. Belief in 
monogamy, for all its importance, is a cold abstraction, and 
few could be found to die for it. Men do not lay down 
their lives for abstract theories, any more than they would 
suffer martyrdom, as Chesterton remarked, for the Meridian 
of Greenwich. But when monogamy is translated from theory 
into personal experience, when belief in the idea becomes 
trust in a life-long comrade of whom one may sing : 

"What I do 
And what I dream include thee, as the wine 
Must taste of its own grapes," 

91 



[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

faith has taken a form for which men do live and die in glad 
surrender. Although the same word, faith, be applied to both, 
trust in persons reaches deeper than belief in propositions and 
supplies a warmth and power that belief cannot attain. 

In religion these two aspects of faith continually are found 
and both are indispensable. Trust in a person, for example, 
presupposes belief in his existence and fidelity. "He that 
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re- 
warder of them that seek after him" (Heb. 11:6). Trust 
cannot exist without belief, but when one seeks the inner 
glory of the religious life that has overflowed in prayer and 
hymn, supplied motive for service and power for character, 
he finds it not in belief, but in the vital relationships involved 
in trusting a Person. Men often have discussed their par- 
ticular beliefs with cool deliberation, have stated them in 
formal creeds, have changed them with access of new knowl- 
edge and experience. But trust, the inner reliance of the soul 
on God and glad self-surrender to his will, has persisted 
through many changes, clothing itself with beliefs like gar- 
ments and casting them aside when old. Trust has made rit- 
uals and churches and unmade them when they were ineffect- 
ual, it has been the life behind the theory, the experience be- 
hind the explanation ; and its proper voice has been not creed 
and controversy, but psalm and song and sacrifice. Men have 
felt in describing this inward friendship that their best words 
were but the "vocal gestures of the dumb," able to indicate 
but unable to express their thoughts. For while belief is 
theology, trust is religion. 

II 

This central position of trust in the Christian life is evident 
when one considers that in its presence or absence lies the 
chief point of difference between a religious and an irreligious 
man. The peculiarity of religion is not that it has beliefs; 
everybody has them. As we have seen, Huxley, who called 
himself an agnostic, said that he thoroughly believed the uni- 
verse to be rational, than which only a few greater ventures 
of faith can be imagined. A man may not want to have be- 
liefs. He may say that knowledge is wool, warm to clothe 
oneself withal, that belief is cotton, and that he will not 
mingle them. But for all that he still does have beliefs and 
he cannot help it. 

92 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-c] 

When, therefore, a Christian and an atheist converse they 
can match belief with belief. "I believe/' says one, "in God 
the Father"; and "I believe," says the other, "in the eternal 
physical universe, without spiritual origin or moral purpose." 
Says the Christian, "I believe in the immortality of persons," 
and the atheist replies, "I believe that the spirit dies with the 
body as sound ceases when the bell's swinging iron grows 
still." Says the Christian, "I believe in the ultimate triumph 
of righteousness"; and the atheist replies, "I believe that all 
man's aspiration after good is but the endless sailing of a 
ship that never shall arrive." So the two may play battledore 
and shuttlecock, but if, so having paired beliefs, they part with 
no more said, they have missed the real point of their 
difference. The irreligious man can match the Christian's 
belief with his own, but one thing he cannot match — the 
Christian's trust. He has nothing that remotely corresponds 
with that. 

The Christian always has this case to plead with an unbe- 
lieving man : Do not suppose that the difference between us 
is exhausted in a conflict of contrasting propositions. Great 
indeed is the divergence there! But the issue of all such differ- 
ence lies in another realm. When you face life's abysmal 
mysteries that your eyes can no more pierce than mine, you 
have no one to trust. When misfortunes fall that send men to 
their graves, as Sydney Smith said, with souls scarred like a 
soldier's body, you have no one to trust. When you face the 
last mystery of all and whether going say farewell to those 
who stay, or staying bid farewell to those who go, you have 
no one to trust. You can match my belief with your belief, 
but for one thing you have no counterpart. "Jehovah is my 
shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23 : 1). You cannot match 
that! "My heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped" 
(Psalm 28:7). You cannot match that! "Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25); "We have 
our hope set on the living God" (I Tim. 4: 10) ; "Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). That trust 
you cannot match! 

Ill 

In the light of this distinction between belief and trust some 
mistaken types of faith can be easily described. There, for 
example, is the faith of formal creedalism. We cannot have 

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[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

trust without some belief, but we may unhappily have belief 
without any trust. Now a man who believes the doctrines that 
underly the Christian life but who does not vitally trust the 
Person whom those doctrines present, has missed the heart 
out of faith's meaning. He is like one who cherishes a letter 
of introduction to a great personality, but has never used it; 
he has the formal credentials, but not the transforming expe- 
rience. It follows that we cannot estimate a man merely by 
knowing his beliefs. I believe in all the Christian truths, says 
one; and the curious question rises, how did these beliefs of 
his come into his possession? They may have been handed 
to him by his forbears like a set of family jewels, a static and 
external heritage, which now he keeps in some ecclesiastical 
safe-deposit vault and on state days, at Christmas or at Easter, 
goes to see. Still he may claim that they are his beliefs ; he 
may even quarrel about their genuineness, not because he ever 
uses them but because they are his. He may repeat the creed 
with the same unquestioning assent that he gives to the con- 
ventional cut of his clothes. His beliefs are not the natural 
utterance and explanation of his inner life with God and man, 
but are put on as they were handed to him, like the fashions 
of his coats. So easy is it to be formally orthodox! 

Over against such conventional believers one thinks of other 
folk whom he has known. They have no such stereotyped, 
clear-cut beliefs. They are very puzzled about life. It seems 
to them abysmally mysterious. And when they speak they talk 
with a modesty the formal creedalist has never felt: My be- 
liefs are most uncertain. Confused by many voices shouting 
conflicting opinions about truths which I once accepted with- 
out thinking, I cannot easily define my thoughts. But I do 
trust God. That assent of the mind which I cannot give to 
propositions, I can give to him. Life is full of mystery, but 
I do not really think that the mystery is darkness at its heart. 
My faith has yet its standing ground in this, that the world's 
activities are not like the convulsions of an epileptic, uncon- 
scious and purposeless. There is a Mind behind the universe, 
and a good purpose in it. 

"Yet in the maddening maze of things, 
And tossed by storm and flood, 
To one fixed trust my spirit clings ; 
I know that God is good." 

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BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-c] 

Say as one may that such an attitude is far from adequate, 
yet as compared with the merely formal acceptance of inher- 
ited opinions how incomparably superior its religious value is ! 
The people of placid, stiff beliefs are not the successors of 
the real saints. When one reads George Matheson's books 
of devotion, for example, or sings his hymn "O Love, that 
wilt not let me go," or learns of his great work in his church 
in Edinburgh, one might suppose that he never had a doubt. 
Yet listen to his own confession : "At one time with a great 
thrill of horror, I found myself an absolute atheist. After 
being ordained at Innellan, I believed nothing; neither God 
nor immortality. I tendered my resignation to the Presby- 
tery, but to their honor they would not accept it, even though 
an Highland Presbytery. They said I was a young man and 
would change. L have changed." One need only read such 
books of his as "Can the Old Faith Live with the New?" to 
see through what a searching discipline of strenuous thought 
he passed in the regaining of his faith. But if one would 
know what held his religious life secure while he was work- 
ing out his beliefs from confusion to clarity, one must turn 
to Matheson's poem : 

"Couldst thou love Me 
When creeds are breaking — 
Old landmarks shaking 
With wind and sea? 

Couldst thou refrain the earth from quaking 
And rest thy heart on Me?" 

Many a man has been held fast by his trust in God while in 
perplexity he thought out his beliefs about God. 

Indeed, within the Scripture, whatever word is used to de- 
scribe the attitude of faith, this vital personal alliance with 
God is everywhere intended. For convenience we have called 
faith in propositions belief, but that does not mean that when 
the Scriptures use "believe" they are urging the acceptance 
of propositions. Not often in the Bible are we invited merely 
to agree with an opinion ; we are everywhere called to trust 
a Person. "Trust in the Lord" in the Old Testament, "Be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ" in the New, are neither of 
them the proclamation of a theory, but the exaltation of a 
personality. Wherever in Scripture doctrines are insisted on— 

95 



[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

the unity of God, the deathlessness of the spirit, the divinity 
of Christ — they are never doctrines for their own sakes ; 
they are either commendatory truths about a Friend, that we 
may not fail to trust him, or they are ideas about life that 
have come to men because they did trust him. Trust in a 
Person is either the source or the goal of every Christian 
doctrine. The Gospel at its center is not a series of proposi- 
tions, but a concrete, personal relationship opened between the 
soul and the Divine, out of which new powers, joys, possibil- 
ities flow gloriously into human life. When out of this expe- 
rience of divine fellowship Paul, for example, speaks of faith 
he means by it the alliance that binds him to his friend. He 
fairly sings of the peace that comes from such believing 
(Rom. 15: 13), of the love that is its motive power and chief 
expression (Gal. 5:6), and of "the sacrifice and service" which 
are its issue (Phil. 2:17). He enthusiastically commends to 
everyone this divine alliance through which moral defeat is 
changed to victory in the "righteousness which is of God 
by faith" (Phil. 3:9); and his prose slips over into poetry 
when he describes his new transfigured life as "access by 
faith into that grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2). Plainly 
he is not talking here about a set of propositions ; he is re- 
joicing in a transforming personal relationship. Some faith 
is nothing but an inherited set of opinions and it gives a 
cold light like an incandescent bulb ; some faith, like sunshine, 
is brighter for seeing than any incandescence can ever be, but 
warm too, so that under its persuasive touch new worlds of 
life spring into being. The faith of the New Testament and 
of the real saints is not the cold brilliance of a creed in whose 
presence one can freeze even while he sees ; it is the warm, 
life-giving sunshine of a trust in God that makes all gracious 
things grow, and puts peace and joy, hope and love into life. 
Belief in propositions is there, but the crown and glory of it 
are trust in a Person. 

IV 

In the light of this distinction between belief and trust, the 
inadequacy of another type of faith can easily be understood. 
Many would protest that they have not accepted their beliefs 
as an external heritage from the past, but rather have thought 
them through, and hold them now as reasonable theories to 
explain the facts of the spiritual life. They would say that 

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BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-c] 

as a geologist observes the rocks and constructs an hypothesis 
to account for their origin and nature, so the mind, observing 
man's contacts with invisible powers, constructs religious be- 
liefs as explanations of experience. They would insist that 
their theology is not merely traditional, but in large degree is 
independently appropriated and original. They hold it as an 
hypothesis to make intelligible man's experiences of the spir- 
itual world. 

There is significant truth in this view of faith. Man's ideals, 
his loves, hopes, aspirations, his unescapable sense of moral 
obligation, his consciousness of Someone other than himself, 
are facts, as solidly present in experience as stars and moun- 
tains. To explain these facts by theology is as rational as to 
explain the stars by astronomy. Every believer in religious 
truth should welcome this confirming word from Dr. Pritchett, 
written when he was President of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology: "Science is grounded in faith just as is reli- 
gion, and scientific truth, like religious truth, consists of 
hypotheses, never wholly verified, that fit the facts more or 
less closely." 

But when one turns from such a statement to inquire what 
faith has actually meant to religious men, he does not find 
that their experience could easily be defined as belief in an 
hypothesis. The prophets, standing their ground through na- 
tional disaster, undiscourageable in their conviction of God's 
good purpose for His people, would have been surprised to 
hear their faith so described. When the Sons of Thunder 
were swept out into a new life by the influence of Jesus, or 
the seer of Patmos was ravished with visions of eternal vic- 
tory, or Paul was made conqueror in a fight for character 
that had been his despair, they would hardly have spoken of 
their experiences as belief in an hypothesis. Real religion has 
always meant something more vital than holding a theory 
about life. When Robert Louis Stevenson says of his trans- 
formation of character, "I came about like a well-handled 
ship. There stood at the wheel that unknown steersman 
whom we call God" ; when Tolstoi cries : "To know God and 
to live are one and the same thing"; when Professor William 
James, of Harvard, writes of his consciousness of God, "It is 
most indefinite to be sure and rather faint, and yet I know 
that if it should cease, there would be a great hush, a great 
void in my life"; one sees what conversion of character, 

97 



[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

what increase of life's value, what spiritual reenforcement 
religion has meant even to such unconventional believers. 
When they speak of it, they are evidently thinking of a vital 
power and not a theory. 

The most obscure Christian to whom religion has become a 
necessity in living, knows how far short the plummet of 
hypothetical belief comes from reaching bottom. In sin, bur- 
dened by a sense of guilt that he could not shake off and 
unable to forgive himself, he has cried to be forgiven, and 
the Gospel that has been his hope was no injunction to hold 
hard by his hypothesis ! In sorrow, when the blows have 
fallen that either hallow or embitter life, he has sought for 
necessary fortitude, and the Gospel which established him cer- 
tainly was not, Cast thy care on thine hypothesis ! And when, 
more than conqueror, he faces death, his confidence and hope 
will rest on no such prayer as this, O Hypothesis, guide me ! 
The word of religion is of another sort, "Though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil, for Thou art with me." Not belief in propositions, but 
trust in a Person has been the heart of the Gospel, and to 
make any hypothesis, however true, do duty as religion is to 
give the soul a stone when it asks for bread. 

The futility of seeking contentment in faith as an hypothesis 
alone is especially manifest in our time. This is an age of 
swiftly changing ideas in every realm. As in science, so in 
religion, today one theory holds the field to be displaced to- 
morrow by another. A man in theology, as much as in politics 
or psychology, goes to bed supposing he has settled his opin- 
ions, and wakes up to find a new array of evidence that dis- 
turbs his confidence. When, therefore, religious faith has 
meant no more to its possessor than theory, there is no secur- 
ity or rest. Each day the winds of opinion shift and veer, and 
minds at the beginning obstinate in their beliefs, at last, dis- 
mayed by the reiterated uncertainties of thought, give up 
their faith. 

Where, then, have the men of faith found the immovable 
center of their confidence? Paul revealed the secret. On the 
side of his particular opinions he frankly confessed his limited 
and uncertain knowledge. "Now we know in fragments," 
he wrote, "now we see through a glass darkly." "How un- 
searchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out!" 
But on the side of his trust he is adamant : "I know him whom 

98 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV-c] 

I have believed." The certainty of his life was his relation- 
ship with a person, and his beliefs were the best he yet had 
thought in the explication and establishment of that trust. 

The great believers of the Church continually have exhib- 
ited this dual aspect of their faith. Even St. Augustine, facing 
the profound mysteries involved in his trinitarian belief, com- 
plains that human speech is pitiably futile in trying to ex- 
plain what "Three persons" means, and that if he uses the 
familiar phrase, he does so not because he likes it, but because 
he may not be silent and knows no better thing to say. But 
when Augustine prays to the God whose nature is so un- 
fathomable that no man can see it fully or express it ade- 
quately, he reveals no such uncertain thought : "Grant me, even 
me, my dearest Lord, to know Thee and love Thee and rejoice 
in Thee. . . ." Let the love of Thee grow every day more and 
more here, that it may be perfect hereafter; that my joy may 
be great in itself and full in Thee. I know, O God, that thou 
art a God of truth; O make good Thy gracious promises to 
me !" So children do not fully understand an earthly father 
and often hold conceptions grotesquely insufficient to do 
justice to his life and work. But they may have for him 
well-founded trust. Even in the years of infancy an en- 
nobling personal relationship begins, despite the inadequacy 
of their beliefs, and that trust yearly deepens while mental 
concepts shift and change with access of new knowledge. The 
abiding core of a child's life with his father is not belief but 
trust. 

Such has always been the secret of faith's stability in men 
who have entered into personal fellowship with God. Even 
of the first disciples it has been said — "They would have had 
difficulty sometimes to tell you what they believed, but they 
could always have told you in whom they believed." 



The truth of which we have been speaking has pertinent 
bearing on the main object of our studies. We shall be con- 
sidering the difficulties which Christians have with their be- 
liefs, and the arguments which may clarify and establish our 
minds' confidence in God. But many problems in the realm 
of intellectual belief cannot be solved by any arguments which 

99 



[IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

the mind devises. The trouble often lies not in our theories 
about the religious life, but in our religious life itself. The 
deeper difficulty is not that our thinking is unreasonable, but 
that our experience is unreal. • 

To a man who never had seen the stars or felt the wonder 
of their distances, astronomy would be a lifeless topic and his 
endeavors to think about it a blundering and futile operation. 
Our theories about anything depend for their interest and 
worth upon the vividness with which we experience the 
thing itself and care to understand its meaning. This is true 
about matters like the stars ; how much more true about the 
intimate affairs of man's own life! Democracy vs. autocracy 
is a crucial problem. But plenty of men are so careless about 
human weal, think so little of their country and the world as 
objects of solicitude and devotion, that to discuss in their 
presence democratic and autocratic theories of state is a waste 
of time. The trouble is not with their minds ; they may be 
very clever and acute. The trouble is with their lives. 
They need to experience patriotism as a vital motive; they 
need to care immensely what happens to mankind. Only then 
will the problems of government grow vivid, and the need 
of a solution become so critical that thinking will be urgent 
and productive. We never think well about anything for 
which we do not care. 

Plenty of people today discuss theology as an academic 
pastime. It is a speculative game at which they play, as they 
do at golf, for its fun and lure. They do not really care 
about God; they feel no crucial need of him. Of little use is 
all their ingenuity in argument, clever and astute though it 
may be. Blind men might so discuss the color scheme of an 
Italian landscape and deaf men debate the harmonies of 
Handel's oratorios. What is lacking is experience. For our 
theories are only the explanations of experience, and an 
emptier game cannot be played than debating explanations of 
experiences which we have not had. 

Everyone in difficulty with his faith should give due weight 
to this important truth. Our intellectual troubles are not all 
caused by the bankruptcy of our spiritual lives, but many of 
them are. Men live with drained and unreplenished spirits, 
from which communion with God and service of high causes 
have been crowded out. God grows unreal. The self -evidenc- 
ing experiences that maintain vital confidence in the spiritual 

100 



_ 



BELIEF AND TRUST [IV -c] 

life grow dim and unimperative. Men pass years without 
habitually thinking as though God really were, without mak- 
ing any great decisions as though God's will were King, with- 
out engaging in any sacrificial work that makes the thought of 
God a need and a delight, without the companionship of great 
ideas or the sustenance of prayer. Then, when experience is 
denuded of any sense of God's reality, some intellectual doubt 
is suggested by books or friends, or fearful trouble shatters 
happiness. What recourse is there in such a case? The argu- 
ments of faith have no experience to get their grip upon; 
they can appeal to no solid and sustained fact of living. Re- 
ligious confidence goes to pieces and men tell their friends 
that modern philosophy has been too much for faith. But the 
underlying difficulty was not philosophical; it was vital. The 
insolvency of "belief" was due to the bankruptcy of "trust." 
Personal fellowship with God failed first; the theory about 
him lapsed afterward. 

Throughout our endeavor to deal with intellectual perplex- 
ity, this fundamental truth should not be forgotten. The 
peril of religion is that vital experience shall be resolved into 
a formula of explanation, and that men, grasping the formula, 
shall suppose themselves thereby to possess the experience. 
If one inquires what air is, the answer will probably be a 
formula stating that oxygen and nitrogen mixed in propor- 
tions of twenty-one to seventy-nine make air. But air in 
experience is not a formula. Air is the elixir we breathe and 
live thereby. Air is the magician who takes the words that 
our lips frame and bears them from friend to friend in daily 
converse. Air is the messenger who carries music to our 
ears and fragrance to our nostrils; it is the whisperer among 
the trees in June, and in March the wild dancer who shakes 
the bare branches for his castanets. Air is the giant who 
piles the surf against the rocky shore, and the nurse who fans 
the faces of the sick. One cannot put that into a formula. 
No more can God be put into a theology, however true. They 
who define him best may understand him least. God is the 
Unseen Friend, the Spiritual Presence, who calls us in ideals, 
warns us in remorse, renews us with his pardon, and com- 
forts us with power. God is the Spirit of Righteousness in 
human life, whose victories we see in every moral gain, and 
allied with whom we have solid hopes of moral victory. 
God is the One who holds indeed the far stars in his hand, 

IOI 



[IV-c] 



THE MEANING OF FAITH 



and yet in fellowship with whom each humblest son of man 
may find strength to do and to endure with constancy and 
fortitude and deathless hope. And when one lives close to 
him, so that the inner doors swing easily on quiet hinges to 
let him in, he is the One who illumines life with a radiance 
that human wills alone cannot attain. That is God — "Blessed 
is the man that taketh refuge in him" (Psalm 34:8). 



102 



CHAPTER V 

Faith's Intellectual Difficulties 

DAILY READINGS 

Most people will readily grant that such a sense of personal 
fellowship with God as the last week's study presented is 
obviously desirable. Every one who has experienced such 
filial life with God will bear witness to its incomparable bless- 
ing. Said Tennyson, "I should be sorely afraid to live my 
life without God's presence, but to feel he is by my side 
just now as much as you are, that is the very joy of my 
heart." But many who would admit the desirability of the 
experience are troubled about the reasonableness of the be- 
liefs that underly it. They want intellectual assurance about 
their faith. Let us in the daily readings present certain con- 
siderations which a mind so perplexed should take into ac- 
count. 

Fifth Week, First Day 

We should let no one deny our right to bring religious be- 
lief to the test of reasonableness. Glanvill was right when 
in the seventeenth century he said, "There is not anything I 
know. which hath done more mischief to Religion than the 
disparaging of Reason." In the New Testament Paul says : 

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. — I Thess. 
5: 21. 

Peter says : 

Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all 
diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue 
knowledge. — II Pet. 1: 5. 

This might be paraphrased to read, Faith should be worked 
out into character and thought through into knowledge. As 
for Jesus : 

103 



[V-i] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

One of the scribes came, and heard them question- 
ing together, and knowing that he had answered them 
well, asked him, What commandment is the first of all? 
Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord 
our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. — Mark 12: 
28-30. 

In many a life which has neglected these admonitions Lowell's 
words have proved true : "Nothing that keeps thought out is 
safe from thought. ,, In our resolute endeavor to think 
through the mystery of life, however, and to find a reason- 
able basis for faith, we need to remember that the very desire 
to know is an indication of the reality which we seek. The 
dim intuition that the world with all its diverse powers was 
in some sense a unity, preceded by ages the statement of 
nature's uniformity which modern science knows; and man's 
tireless desire to reach a reasonable statement of the unity 
was an intimation in advance that unity was there. So men 
do not believe in God because they have proved him; they 
rather strive endlessly to prove him because they cannot help 
being sure that he must be there. This in itself is an intima- 
tion about reality which no thoughtful man will lightly set 
aside. Tennyson rightly describes the reason for man's 
quest after proof about God : 

"If e'er when faith had f all'n asleep, 
I heard a voice 'believe no more' 
And heard an ever-breaking shore 

That tumbled in the Godless deep; 

A warmth within the breast would melt 
The freezing reason's colder part, 
And like a man in wrath the heart 

Stood up and answer'd 'I have felt.' " 

Eternal Father, Quest of ages, long sought, oft doubted 
or forsook; can it be that Thou art known to us, the Law 
within our minds, the Life of every breath we draw, the Love 
that yearneth in our hearts f Art Thou the Spirit who oft 
hast striven with us, and whom we greatly feared, lest yield- 
ing to His strong embrace we should become more than we 
dared to be? 

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INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-2] 

An impulse toward forgiveness has sometimes stirred with- 
in us, we have felt moved to show mercy, the sacrificial life 
has touched our aspiration; but we were unprepared to pay 
the price. Was this Thyself, and have we turned from Thee? 
Something like this we must have done, so barren, joyless and 
so dead has life become. Canst Thou not visit us again? 

We hush our thoughts to silence, we school our spirits in 
sincerity, and here we wait. O may we not feel once more 
the light upon our straining eyes, the tides of life rise again 
within our waiting hearts? 

We never looked to meet Thee in the stress of thought, 
the toil of life, or in the call of duty; we only knew that 
somehow life had lost for us all meaning, dignity, and 
beauty. How then shall we turn back again and see with 
eyes that fear has filmed? How can we be born again, now 
grown so old in fatal habit? 

If we could see this life of ours lived out in Thee, its 
common days exalted, its circumstances made a throne, its 
bitterness, disappointment, and failure all redeemed, then our 
hearts might stir again, and these trembling hands lay hold 
on life for evermore. Amen.—W. E. Orchard. 



Fifth Week, Second Day 

Not only is man's tireless quest for assurance about God 
an intimation that God must be here to be sought after; but 
the spiritual nature of man which insists on the quest is 
itself a revelation that God actually is here. Some men say 
that our spiritual life is the result of evolution, and they 
suppose that by this magic word they have explained it. But 
what comes out of a process of growth was somehow latent 
in the Original Beginning from which the growth started. 
Palm-trees do not grow from acorns ; only oaks evolve from 
acorns and for the sufficient reason that oaks are somehow 
involved in acorns to start with. So a universe with spiritual 
life in it naturally presupposes an Original with spiritual 
life in It. Whatever evolves must first of all have been in- 
volved. The very fact that the seeker after God has a 
spiritual life, which is restless and unsatisfied without faith 
in the Eternal Spirit, is one of the clearest indications that, 
whatever else may be said about the source of life, it must be 
spiritual. The Nile for ages was a mystery ; it flowed through 

105 



IV-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Egypt — a blessed necessity to the land, enriching the soil, 
and sustaining the people — but nobody knew its source. Long 
before Victoria Nyanza was discovered, however, thinkers 
were sure that a great lake must be the explanation of the 
stream; and when at last they found the sources of the 
Nile, the lake was even greater than anyone had dreamed. 
So is man's spirit a revelation of a spiritual origin even be- 
fore that origin is clearly known. As the Bible puts it: 

Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who 
gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. — II Cor. 5: 5. 

O God! mysterious and Infinite, Thou art the first and Thou 
the last: as our weeks pass away and our age rises or declines, 
we still return to Thee who ever art the same. We seek Thee 
as the sole abiding light amid the shadows of perishable 
things. O Thou most ancient God! to whom the heavens are 
but of yesterday, and the life of worlds but as the shooting 
star, there is no number of Thy days and mercies; and what 
can we do, O Lord, but throw ourselves on Thee who failest 
not, and from whom our pathway is not hid? With solemn 
and open heart we would meet Thee here. Cover not Thy- 
self with a cloud, most High, but may our prayer pass 
through. 

O Thou our constant Witness and our awful Judge! When 
we remember our thoughtless lives, our low desires, our im- 
patient temper, our ungoverned wills, we know that Thou 
hast left us without excuse. For Thou hast not made us 
blind, O Lord, as the creatures that have no sin; nor hast 
Thou spared the light of holy guidance. Thy still small 
voice of warning whispers through our deepest conscience; 
and Thine open Word hath dwelt among us, full of grace 
and truth, and called us to the feet of Christ to choose the 
better part. We are not our own, and are ashamed to have 
lived unto ourselves. Thou hast formed us for Thy service, 
and we must hide our face that we have shrunk from the 
glorious hardships of our task, and slumbered on our holy 
watch. Our daily work has not been wrought as in Thy 
sight; and we have not made the outgoings of the morning 
and the evening to praise Thee. The trials of our patience 
we have received as earthly pains of nature, not as the 
heavenly discipline of faith; and the fulness of Thy bounties 

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INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-3I 

has come to us as dead comfort, not as the quickening touch 
of Thy everlasting love. O our true and only God! we have 
lived in a bondage of the world that, bringeth no content; 
and the passions we serve are as strange idols that cannot 
deliver. Awake, awake, O Arm of the Lord! and burst our 
bonds in sunder; and help the spirit that struggles within us 
to turn unto Thee with a pure heart, and serve Thee in 
newness of spirit. Amen. — James Martineau. 

Fifth Week, Third Day 

Many stumble at the very beginning of their quest for 
God, because they are sure that finite mind can never know 
the Infinite. The Bible itself asserts that God is in one sense 
unknowable. 

Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. — 
Job 37: 23. 

Man cannot find out the work that God hath done from 
the beginning even to the end. — Eccl. 3: 11. 

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the 
mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? — 
Rom. 11: 33, 34. 

But in the same sense in which God is unknowable, all the 
most important realities with which we deal are also beyond 
our comprehension. We do not know what electricity is, 
what matter is, what life is. Ether is utterly beyond the 
reach of our definitions, and an English scientist calls it 
"unknown, impalpable, the necessary condition of scientific 
thought." As for the constituent elements of the material 
world, we are told that atoms are so infinitesimally minute 
as to be indivisible, and yet that an "electron ranges about 
in the atom as a mouse might in a cathedral." The plain fact 
is that in any realm, human knowledge soon runs off into 
an unknown region where it deals with invisible realities, 
which it cannot define, but on which life is based. While 
therefore we do not know what electricit}^ ether, electrons, 
and life itself are, we do know them well in their relationship 
with our needs. So we may know God. Deep beyond deep 
in him will be past our fathoming, but- what God means irL 
his relationships with our lives we may know gloriously. 

107 



[V-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

O Thou who transcendest all thought of Thee as the 
heavens are higher than the earth; we acknowledge that we 
cannot search Thee out to perfection, but we thank Thee that 
Thou, the Invisible, comest to us in the things that are seen; 
that Thy exceeding glory is shadowed in the Hower that 
blooms for a day, in the light that fades; that Thine infinite 
love has been incarnate in lowly human life ; and that Thy 
presence surrounds all our ignorance, Thy holiness our sin, 
Thy peace our unrest. 

Give us that lowly heart which is the only temple that 
can contain the infinite. Save us from the presumption that 
prides itself on a knowledge which is not ours, and from the 
hypocrisy and carelessness which professes an ignorance which 
Thy manifestation has made for ever impossible. Save us 
from calling ourselves by a name that Thou alone canst wear, 
and from despising the image of Thyself Thou hast formed 
ms to bear, and grant that knowledge of Thee revealed in 
Jesus Christ which is our eternal life. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

Fifth Week, Fourth Day 

The assurance of God may come in part from looking out- 
ward at his creation. This universe seems superficially to 
be material, but really it is saturated with the presence of 
mind. So a city's streets, buildings, bridges, subways, and 
railroads might appear to careless thought grossly material; 
but the fact is that in their origin they all are mental. They 
are not simply iron and steel and stone; they are thought, 
plan, purpose materialized and made visible. The basic fact 
about them is that mind shaped them and permeates every 
use to which they are put. The most important and decisive 
force in their origination was not anything that can be seen, 
but the invisible thought that dreamed them and moulded 
them. So when one looks at creation he finds something more 
than matter; he finds order, law, uniformity; his mind is 
at home in tracing regularities, discovering laws, and perceiv- 
ing purposes. Creation is not grossly material ; it is saturated 
with the evidence of mind. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, walk- 
ing in the country with Liebig, his fellow-scientist, asked his 
companion if he believed that the grass and flowers grew by 
mere chemical forces ; and Liebig answered, "No, no more 

108 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-4l 

than I could believe that the books of botany describing 
them could grow by mere chemical forces." 

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created 
these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth 
them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for 
that he is strong in power, not one is lacking. 

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, 
My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due to 
me is passed away from my God? Hast thou not known? 
hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the 
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is 
weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He 
giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might 
he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and 
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they 
that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they 
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and 
not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint. — Isa. 40: 
26-31. 

O Thou Infinite Perfection, who art the soul of all things 
that are . . . we thank Thee for the world of matter where- 
on we live, wherewith our hands are occupied, and whereby 
our bodies are builded up and filled with food and furnished 
with all things needful to enjoy. We thank Thee for the 
calmness of Night, which folds Thy children in her arms, and 
rockest them into peaceful sleep, and when we wake we thank 
Thee that we are still with Thee. We bless Thee for the 
heavens over our head, arched with loveliness, and starred 
with beauty, speaking in the poetry of nature the psalm of life 
which the spheres chant before Thee to every listening soul. 

We thank Thee for this greater and nobler world of spirit 
wherein we live, whereof we are, whereby we are strength- 
ened, upheld, and blessed. We thank Thee for the wondrous 
powers which Thou hast given to man, that Thou hast created 
him for so great an estate, that thou hast enriched him with 
such noble faculties of mind and conscience and heart and 
soul, capable of such continual increase of growth and in- 
come of inspiration from Thyself. We thank Thee for the 
wise mind, for the just conscience, for the loving heart, and 
the soul which knows Thee as Thou art, and enters into 
communion with Thy spirit, rejoicing in its blessing from 
day to day. Amen. — Theodore Parker. 

109 



IV-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 



Fifth Week, Fifth Day 

The vital assurance of faith always comes, not so much 
from observing the outer world, as from appreciating the 
meaning of man's inner life. Man knows that he is some- 
thing more than a physical machine. Theorists may say that 
our minds are only a series of molecular changes in the brain ; 
but man turns to ask : Who is it that is watching these molecu- 
lar changes f The very fact that we can discuss them, is 
proof that we are something more than they are and of 
^another -order. Leslie Stephen was an agnostic, but at the 
thought of man as merely a physical machine he grew im- 
patient. "I knock down a man and an image," he said, "and 
both fall down because both are material. But when the 
man gets up and knocks me down, the result is not explicable 
•by any merely mechanical action." Man denies his own in- 
ward consciousness of self when he refuses to acknowledge 
the mental and spiritual part of him as the thing he really 
is. Man may have a body, but he surely is a soul. And 
when man lets this highest part of him speak its own charac- 
teristic word, he always hears a message like this: I am 
spirit; to grow into great character is the one worthy end of 
my existence; but how came I to be spirit with spiritual 
purpose unless my Creator is of like quality? and how can 
I believe that my existence and my purpose are not a cruel 
joke unless I am begotten by a Spiritual Life that will sustain 
my strength and crown my effort? To believe that man's 
soul is a foundling, laid on the doorstep of a merely physical 
universe, crying in vain for any father who begot him or any 
mother who conceived him, is to make our highest life a liar. 
Therefore man at his best has always believed in God. 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are 
the sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage 
again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. — 
Rom. 8: 14-16. 

O Thou whom no name can tell, whom all our thoughts can- 
not fully comprehend, we rejoice in all Thy goodness. . . . 
We thank Thee for our body, this handful of dust so curi- 

110 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-6] 

ously and wonderfully framed together. We bless Thee for 
this sparkle of Thy fire that we call our soul, which en- 
chants the dust into thoughtful human life, and blesses us 
with so rich a gift. We thank Thee for the varied powers 
Thou hast given us here on earth. We bless Thee for the 
far-reaching mind, which puts all things underneath our feet, 
rides on the winds and the waters, and tames the lightning 
into useful service. . . . We thank Thee for this conscience, 
whereby face to face zve commune with Thine everlasting 
justice. We thank Thee for the strength of will which can 
overpower the weakness of mortal flesh, face danger and 
endure hardship, and in all things acquit us like men. . . . 

We thank Thee for this religious sense, whereby we know 
Thee, and, amid a world of things that perish, lay fast hold 
on Thyself, who alone art steadfast, without beginning of 
days or end of years, forever and forever still the same. 
We thank Thee that amid all the darkness of time, amid 
joys that deceive us and pleasures that cheat, amid* the trans- 
gressions we commit, we can still lift up our hands to Thee, 
and draw near Thee with our heart, and Thou blessest us 
still with more than a father's or a mother's never-ending 
love. Amen. — Theodore Parker. 



Fifth Week, Sixth Day 

One ground of assurance concerning faith is the way a 
sincere fellowship with God affects life. In a delicious pas- 
sage of his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin says, "I was 
scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, 
as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I 
began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against 
Deism fell into my hands ; they were said to be the sub- 
stance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It hap- 
pened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to 
what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists 
which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much 
stronger than the refutations ; in short I soon became a 
thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, par- 
ticularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of them having after- 
wards wrong' d me greatly without the least compunction, 
and recollecting Keith's conduct towards me (who was an- 
other free thinker), and my own towards Vernon and Miss 

m 



[V-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began to 
suspect that' this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not very 
useful." Many men, not yet able to see clearly the issue of 
conflicting arguments, are practically convinced in favor of 
faith by the relative effects on life of faith and unbelief. 
When one carries this thought out until he imagines a world 
where no one any more believes in God, he feels even more 
emphatically the negative results of unbelief. As Sir James 
Stephen said, "We cannot judge of the effects of Atheism 
from the conduct of persons who have been educated as 
believers in God, and in the midst of a nation which believes 
in God. If we should ever see a generation of men to whom 
the word God has no meaning at all, we should get a light 
on the subject which might be lurid enough." A practical 
working conviction is often gained in religion, as in every 
other realm, not by argument, but by acting on a principle 
until it verifies itself by its results, or, as in Benjamin Frank- 
lin^ case, by trying a negation until one is driven from it by 
its consequences. 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's 
clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their 
fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree 
bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth 
forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, 
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every 
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and 
cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know 
them. — Matt. 7: 15-20. 

O God, who remainest the same though all else fades, who 
chaHgest not with our changing moods, who leavest us not 
when we leave Thee; we thank Thee that when we lose 
faith in Thee, soon or late we come to faith in something 
that leads us back again with firmer trust and more sincerity. 
Even if we wander into the far country we take ourselves 
with us; ourselves who are set towards Thee as rivers to 
the sea. If we turn to foolishness, our hearts grow faint 
and weary, our path is set with thorns, the night overtakes 
us, and we find we have strayed from light and life. 

Grant to us clearer vision of the light zvhich knows no shade 
of turning, that we stray not in folly away; incline our hearts 

112 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-7] 

to love the truth alone, so that we miss Thee not at last; 
give us to realize of what spirit we are, so that we cleave ever 
to Thee, who alone can give us rest and joy. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

Fifth Week, Seventh Day 

When all is said and done in the matter of intellectual 
assurance, many are confused by the seeming lack of finality 
in the result. After all these ages of debate, they say, see all 
the innumerable opinions of jarring sects about religious 
truth ! Evidently there is no satisfying conclusion obtainable 
at all ! But look at the innumerable schools of medicine — shall 
one on their account decide that health is a fruitless study? 
Consider the infinite variety of taste in food — shall we say 
that therefore hunger and its satisfaction is a futile question 
to discuss? Rather, the very variety of the answers in man's 
quest reveals the importance of the quest itself. Of course 
proof of God lacks the finality of a scientific demonstration, 
and this is true because it moves in a realm so much more 
important than anything that science touches. Exactness and 
finality are possible only in the least important realms. One 
can measure and analyze and describe to a minute nicety a 
table which a carpenter has made, but when one turns to 
the carpenter himself and endeavors to analyze his motives, 
weigh his thoughts, estimate his quality, and prove his pur- 
poses, one drops minute nicety at once. The carpenter is not to 
be put into a column of figures and added with mathematical 
precision as his table is. The farther up one moves in the 
scale the less precise and undeniable do his conclusions be- 
come. So science is exact just because it deals with meas- 
urable things ; but religion, by as much as its realm is more 
important, can less easily pack its conclusions into neat 
parcels finally tied up and sealed. A man who will not believe 
anything which is not precisely demonstrable must eliminate 
from his life everything except what yardsticks can measure 
and scales can weigh. Let no man ever give up the fight for 
faith because he does not seem at once to be reaching an 
answer which he can neatly formulate. Let him remember 
Tolstoi, writing on his birthday: "I am twenty-four, and 
I have not done a thing yet. But I feel that not in vain 
have I been struggling for nearly eight years against doubt 

113 



[V-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

and temptation. For what am I destined? This only the 
future will disclose." 

Hear, O Jehovah, when I cry with my voice: 

Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto 

thee, 
Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek. 
Hide not thy face from me; 
Put not thy servant away in anger: 
Thou hast been my help; 
Cast me not off, neither forsake me, O God o£ my 

salvation. 
When my father and my mother forsake me, 
Then Jehovah will take me up. 
Teach me thy way, O Jehovah; 
And lead me in a plain path, 
Because of mine enemies. 

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: 
For false witnesses are risen up against me, 
And such as breathe out cruelty. 
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of 

Jehovah 
In the land of the living. 
Wait for Jehovah: 

Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; 
Yea, wait thou for Jehovah. Psalm 27: 7-14. 

Deliver us,' our Father, from all those mists which do arise 
from the low places where we dwell, which rise up and hide 
the sun, and the stars even, and Thee. Deliver us from the 
narrowness and the poverty of our conceptions. Deliver us 
from the despotism of our senses. And grant unto us this 
morning, the effusion of Thy Spirit, which shall bring us into 
the realm of spiritual things, so that we may, by the use of 
all that which is divine in us, rise into the sphere of Thy 
thought, into the realm where Thou dwellest, and whither 
have trooped from the ages the spirits of just men now 
made perfect. Grant, we pray Thee, that we may not look 
with time-eyes upon eternal things, measuring and dwarfing 
with our imperfectness the fitness and beauty of things 
heavenly. So teach us to come into Thy presence and to rise 
by sympathy into Thy way of thinking and feeling, that so 
much as we can discern of the invisible may come to us 
aright. Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 

114 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-c] 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 



While it is true that in many cases the apparent unreason- 
ableness of Christian faith springs from the underlying un- 
reality of Christian life, this is riot always a sufficient diag- 
nosis of doubt. Horace G. Hutchinson, the English golfer, 
who spent much of his life in agnosticism and has now come 
over into Christian faith, thus interprets the spirit of his long 
unbelief : "All the while I had the keenest consciousness of 
the comfort that one would gain could he but believe in the 
truth of the Christian promises. Surely that must always be 
the agnostic's mood. . . . It is not that they wilfully reject 
the appeal to the heart; their will is eager to respond to it. 
But man has his gift of reason ; it cannot be that he is not 
intended to use it. Least of all can it be part of the great 
design that he should suspend its use in regard to the most 
important subject to which his thought can be directed." 

Such sincere intellectual difficulties with faith must be met 
with intellectual arguments and not with moral accusations. 
Plenty of folk of elevated character and admirable lives grant, 
sometimes impatiently, that the Christian faith is beautiful — 
but is it so? Is not its solacing power a deceptive sleight of 
hand, by which our pleasing fancies and desires are made 
to look like truth? So a mirage is beautiful to weary travel- 
ers, but their temporary comfort rests on fallacy. McTaggart 
summed up one of the most wide-spread and masterful desires 
of this generation when he said, "What people want is a reli- 
gion they can believe to be true." 

As one sets himself to meet faith's intellectual difficulties, 
the attitude in which he is to approach the problem is all- 
important. Samuel M. Crothers tells us that a young man 
once left with him a manuscript for criticism, and remarked 
in passing, "It is only a little bit of my work, and it will not 
take you long to look it over. In fact it is only the first 
chapter in which I explain the Universe." When one out- 
grows this cocksure presumption of youth and gains a graver 
and more seasoned mind, he leaves behind the attempt to 
pierce to creation's last secret. He sees that we can no more 
neatly and finally demonstrate God than we can demonstrate 
any of life's important faiths. 

115 



[V-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Moreover proof of God, as a theorem in philosophy, is not a 
deep human need. Men often have supposed that they had 
such demonstration, but human experience was little affected 
by the fact. The exhaustless source of mankind's desire for 
assurance about God is not theoretical curiosity but vital need, 
and until a man feels the need, sees how urgently man's high- 
est life reaches out toward God, he never will make much of 
any arguments. Browning's bishop asks his friend: 

"Like you this Christianity or not? 
It may be false, but will you wish it true? 
Has it your vote to be so if it can?" 

Until a man gives an affirmative answer to that inquiry, until 
he possesses a life that itself suggests God and wants him, he 
is not likely to arrive anywhere by argument alone. 

This is not the case with Christianity only. We cannot 
prove with theoretical finality that monogamy is the form 
of family life to which the universe is best adapted. But 
mankind, trying many experiments with family life, has found 
in the monogamous family values unique and indispensable. 
It is because men feel the value of such a love-bond, that they 
begin to argue for it. And their argument, when one sees 
deeply into it, is framed after this fashion : We know the 
worth of this family-life of faithful lovers. We want 
monogamy and we propose to have it. We do not pretend 
that our faith in monogamy, as the form of marriage best 
fitted to this universe, is capable of exact demonstration ; but 
we do see arguments of great weight in favor of it and we 
do not see any convincing arguments against it. We are 
persuaded that our faith has reasonable right of way; and 
we propose to go on believing in monogamy and practicing 
it and combating its enemies, until we prove our case in the 
only way such cases ever can be finally proved, by the issue 
of the matter in the end. 

So men come into the sort of personal and social life that 
Jesus represents. Apart from any theories, they value the life 
itself — its ideals of character, friendship, service, trust. If 
honesty allows, they propose to live that life. When a man 
has gone far enough in Christian experience, so that he comes 
up to his intellectual difficulties by such a road, he is likely 
to profit by a consideration of the reasons in favor of 

116 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-c] 

faith. He is in the attitude of saying : I have found great liv- 
ing in Christ. No argument for the Christian experience can 
be quite so convincing as the Christian experience itself. I 
am bound to have that life if I honestly can, and I will search 
to see whether there is any insuperable intellectual difficulty 
in the way of it. 

II 

One of the initial perplexities of faith concerns the sort of 
intellectual assurance which we have a right to expect. In a 
laboratory of physics, the investigator gathers facts, makes 
inductions as to their laws, and then verifies his findings. He 
uses a simplicity of procedure and gains a finality of result 
that makes all other knowledge seem relatively insecure. To 
be sure, the scientist may seek long for his truth and make 
many ineffectual guesses that prove false, but, in the end, he 
reaches a conclusion so demonstrable that every man of wit 
.enough to investigate the subject must agree that it is so. 
How the Christian wishes for such certainty concerning God ! 

Before, however, any one surrenders confidence in God, be- 
cause confessedly the affirmations of religious faith cannot be 
established by such methods as a physicist employs, there is 
ample reason for delay. We are certain that heat expands 
and cold contracts, and we can prove the fact and state its 
laws. But are we not also sure that it is wrong to lie and 
right to tell the truth? This conviction about truthfulness at 
least equals in theoretical certainty and in practical right to 
determine conduct, our confidence in heat's expanding power. 
This conviction about truthfulness does actually sway life 
more than does any single scientific truth that one can name. 
Let us then set ourselves to prove our moral confidence by 
such methods as the physical laboratory can supply — with 
yard sticks, and Troy weight scales, and test tubes, and 
meters ! At once it is evident that if we are to hold only 
such truth as is amenable to the demonstration of a laboratory, 
we must bid farewell to every moral conviction that hitherto 
has influenced our lives. God, banished because the physicist 
cannot prove him, will have good company in exile! 

Moreover, all our esthetic convictions will have to share 
that banishment. We know that some things are beautiful. 
The consensus of the race's judgment has not so much agreed 
to accept the new astronomy as it has agreed to think sunrise 

117 



[V-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

glorious and snow-capped mountains wonderful. Take from 
our lives our judgments on beauty, so that we may call no 
music marvelous, no poetry inspiring, no scenery sublime,, 
and some of the most intimate and assured convictions we 
possess will have to go. A man who has seen the Matterhorn 
at dawn, when the first shaft of light reaches its rocky pin- 
nacle and streams down in glory over the glaciers that cape 
its shoulders, will not disbelieve the splendor of the scene,, 
though all the world beside unanimously should cry that it is 
not beautiful. But prove it by the methods of a Laboratory?' 
When the geologist has analyzed all the mountain's rocks, the 
chemist all its minerals ; when the astronomer has traced the 
earth's orbit that brings on the dawn, and the physicist has 
counted and tabulated the rays of light that make the colors, 
our conviction of the scene's beauty will be as little explained 
or proved as is our confidence in God. It becomes clear that 
some convictions which we both do and must hold are not 
amenable to the sort of proof which a scientific laboratory^ 
furnishes. 

Moreover, if we will have no truth beyond the reach of a 
physicist's demonstration, all our convictions in the realm of 
personal relationship will have to go. We know that friend- 
ship-love is the crown of every human fellowship. Father 
and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, wife anc 
husband — these relationships are in themselves bare branches 
wanting the foliage and fruit of friendship. Of no truth is 
man at his best more sure than he is that "Life is just our 
chance o' the price of learning love." But no laboratory ever 
can deal with such a truth, much less establish it. For this 
is the neglected insight, for the want of which our religious 
confidence is needlessly unstable: Every realm of reality has 
its own appropriate kind of proof, and a method of proof j 
available in one realm is seldom, if ever, usable in another. 
That truthfulness is right is in a way provable, but methods || 
proper to the moral realm must be allowed ; that the Matter- 
horn is sublime is in a sense provable, but by methods which 
the esthetic realm permits ; that love is the crown of life can 
be soundly established, but one must employ a method appro* 
priate to personal relationships. If, obsessed by the pro- 
cedure of a laboratory as the solitary path to knowledge, one 
will have no convictions which cannot meet its tests, then in 
good logic there must be a great emigration from his soul. 

118 



of 

s 

es 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-cJ 

All his convictions about morals and beauty, all his convic- 
tions about personal friendships and about God must leave 
together. He will have a depopulated spirit. No man could 
live on such terms for a single hour. The most essential and 
valuable equipment of our souls is in convictions which the 
demonstrations of a physicist can as little reach as an inch 
worm, clambering up the Himalayas, can measure the distance 
to the sun. 

Ill 

A man to whom the Christian life has come to be preemi- 
nently valuable, and who is asking whether it is intellectually 
justifiable, is set free, by such considerations as we just have 
noted, to seek assurance where religious assurance may prop- 
erly be found. For one thing, he may find help by trying out 
the creed of no-God. Many a man is a wavering believer,, 
makes little excursions into doubt and returns hesitant and 
unhappy, because he never has dared to see his doubts through 
to their logical conclusion and to face the world with God 
eliminated. 

One may sense the general atmosphere of the world, under 
the no-God hypothesis, by saying, In all this universe there 
is no mind essentially greater than mine. The import of such 
a statement grows weightier the more one ponders it. AH 
human minds are infinitesimal in knowledge ; endless realities 
must lie beyond our reach; "our science is a drop, our ignor- 
ance a sea." Yet human knowledge is all that anywhere exists, 
if the no-God hypothesis is true. There is no knower who 
knows more, and the infinite reality beyond our grasp is not 
known by any mind at all. No one ever thought it or will 
think it through eternity. Then, let a man add, In all this 
universe there is no goodness essentially greater than mine. 
Human goodness is pitiably partial ; it is but prophecy of what 
goodness ought to mean ; "Man is a dwarf of himself," as 
Emerson said. But human goodness is all that anywhere 
exists, if the no-God hypothesis is true. There never will be 
any better goodness anywhere, and when the earth comes to 
its end in a solar catastrophe, there will be no goodness left 
at all. Certainly the hypothesis of no-God raises more ques- 
tions than it easily can quell. 

Indeed the Christian, long accused by unbelieving friends of 
gross credulity because he holds his creed, may well leave his 

119 



[V-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

defense and "go over the top" in an offensive charge. If it 
is a question of holding creeds, unbelief is a creed as certainly 
as belief is ; it says, I believe that there is no God or that 
God cannot be known. If it is a question of credulity, the 
Christian suspects that of all the different kinds of credulous- 
ness which the world has seen, nothing ever has surpassed 
the capacity of modern sceptics to accept impossible beliefs. 
He who says, I believe that there is no God, nor anything 
which that name might reasonably connote, is saying, I believe 
that the fundamental reality everywhere is physical. Long 
ages ago atoms, electrons, "mobile cosmic ethers" began their 
mysterious organization, whose present issue is planetary 
orbits, rocks, organic life, and, highest point of all, the brain 
of man. Man's mind is but the moving shadow cast by the 
activity of brain. Man's character is the subtle fragrance of 
his nerves. Everywhere, if the no-God hypothesis be true, 
spirit is a result, physical energy the cause. 

Some startling corollaries follow such a view. No man 
can be blamed for anything. Molecular action in the brain is 
responsible alike for saints and sinners, and we are as power- 
less to change our quality of character or action as a planet is 
to change its course. Judas and Jesus, Festus and Paul, the 
Belgian lads and the Prussian officers who mutilated them, 
the raper and the raped — why blame the one or praise the 
other when all characters alike are ground from a physical 
machine, whose action is predetermined by the push of uni- 
versal energy behind ? One man even says that to condemn an 
immoral deed is like Xerxes whipping the Hellespont — pun- 
ishment visited on physical necessity which is not to blame. 

The second corollary is not less startling: every man thinks 
as he does because of molecular action in the brain. A Chris- 
tian believes in God because his molecules maneuver so, and 
his opponent is an atheist because his molecules maneuver 
otherwise, and all convictions of truth, however well debated 
and reasoned out; are fundamentally the work of atoms, not 
of mind. What we call intellect as little causes anything as 
steam from a kettle causes the boiling out of which it comes. 
Some brains boil Socialism, some do not; some brains boil 
Episcopalianism and some Christian Science. A determinist 
and a believer in freewill differ as do oaks and elm trees, for 
physical reasons only, and folk are Catholic in southern 
Europe — so we are informed — because their skulls are nar- 

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INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-c] 

row, and in northern Europe Protestants because their skulls 
are broad. Truth is a nickname for a neurosis. The standings 
marvel is that on some matters like the multiplication table 
our brains boil so unanimously. 

A third corollary still remains : we have no creative power 
of mind and will. All that is and is to be was wound up ia 
primeval matter, and now in our thoughts and actions is tick- 
ing like a clock. "All of our philosophy," says Huxley, "all our 
poetry, all our science, and all our art — Plato, Shakespeare, 
Newton, and Raphael — are potential in the fires of the sun." 
That is to say, Plato had nothing to do with creating his 
philosophy, nor Shakespeare with writing plays — they were 
empty megaphones and the real voice is the physical machine 
from which all things come. Professor Bowne of Boston 
University, after the publication of his "Metaphysics," received 
from a physicist a protest against his emphasis on the reality 
of mind. The professor of physics insisted that the only 
fundamental reality was physical and that mind is always a 
result of brain's activity and never a cause of anything. To 
this Professor Bowne replied that according to the writer's 
own theory, as he understood it, the letter of protest was the 
result of certain physical forces issuing in nervous excitations 
that made scratches on paper, and that the writer's mind had 
nothing effectual to do with its composition. This, said Pro- 
fessor Bowne, might be a plausible explanation of the letter, 
but he was unwilling to apply it to the universe. What 
wonder that the physicist acknowledged to a friend that the 
retort nettled him, for he did not see just how to answer it? 

IV 

One's discontent with this reduction of our lives to physical 
causation is increased when he studies the mental process by 
which men reach it. It is as if a man should perceive in the 
works of Shakespeare insight and beauty, pathos and laughter, 
despair and hope, and should set himself to explain all these 
as the function of the type. How plausibly he could do it! 
If one takes Shakespeare's sentences full of spiritual meaning 
he can readily resolve them into twenty-six constituent letters 
of the alphabet, and these into certain hooks and dashes, and 
these into arithmetical points diffused in space. Starting 
with such abstract points, let one suppose that some fortunate 

121 



[V-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

day they arranged themselves into hooks and dashes, and these 
into letters of the alphabet, and these by fortuitous con- 
course came together into sentences. Reading them we think 
we see deep spiritual meaning, but they are all the work of 
type; the fundamental reality is arithmetical points diffused 
in space. Such is the process by which a man reduces the 
mental and moral life of man back to its physical basis; then 
breaks up the physical basis into atoms ; then, starting with 
these abstractions, builds up again the whole world which he 
just has analyzed, and thinks he has explained the infinitely 
significant spiritual life of man. Not for a long time will we 
accept such a method of explaining the works of Shakespeare ! 
Nor can man contentedly be made to follow so inconsequential 
a process of thought as that by which the mind and character 
of Jesus are reduced to a maneuver of molecules. 

The attractiveness of this explanation of the universe as a 
huge physical machine is easily understood. It presents a 
simple picture, readily grasped. It packs the whole explana- 
tion of the world into a neat parcel, portable by any mind. 
In the days of monarchy the government of the universe was 
pictured in terms of an absolute sovereign ; in feudal times 
the divine economy was pictured as a gigantic feudalism ; 
we always use a dominant factor in the life of man to help 
us picture the eternal. So in the age whose builder and maker 
is machinery we easily portray the universe as a huge ma- 
chine. The process is simple and natural, but to suppose that 
it is adequate is preposterous. Lord Kelvin, the chemist, knew 
thoroughly the mechanistic idea of the world. He felt the 
fascination of it, for he said at Johns Hopkins University, "I 
never satisfy myself until I make a mechanical model of a 
thing. If I can make a mechanical model I can understand 
it. As long as I cannot make a mechanical model all the way 
through, I cannot understand." But Lord Kelvin knew better 
than to suppose that this figure comprehended all of reality. 
"The atheistic idea," said he, "is so nonsensical, that I do 
not know how to put it into words." 

The rejection of the no-God hypothesis does not necessarily 
imply that a man becomes fully Christian in his thought of 
deity. There are way-stations between no-God and Jesus* 
Father. But it does mean that to him reality must be funda- 
mentally spiritual, not physical. What other hypothesis pos- 
sibly can fit the facts? For consider the view of a growing 

122 






INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-c] 

universe which we see from the outlook that modern science 
furnishes. Out of a primeval chaos where physical forces 
snarled at each other in unrelieved antagonism, where no man 
had yet arisen to love truth and serve righteousness, some- 
thing has brought us to a time, when for all our evil, there 
are mothers and music and the laughter of children at play, 
men who love honor and for service' sake lay down their lives, 
and homes in every obscure street where fortitude and sacri- 
fice are splendidly exhibited. Out of a chaos, where a con- 
temporary observer, could there have been one, would have 
seen no slightest promise of spirit, something has brought us 
to the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, to 
great character and growing achievements in social righteous- 
ness, to lofty thoughts of the Divine and hopes of life eternal. 
Something has been at work here besides matter. No 
explanation of all this will do, without God. 



Another source of confirmation for the man who, valuing 
Christian experience, seeks assurance that it is intellectually 
justifiable, is to be found in the effect of Christian faith on 
life itself, The nautical tables can be proved by an astro- 
nomer in his observatory ; but if they are given to a sailor and 
he beats about the seas with them in safety, finding that they 
make adventurous voyages practicable, that also would be 
important witness to their truth. So the Christian ideas of 
life have not been kept by studious recluses to ponder over 
and weave philosophies about; they have been down in the 
market place, men have been practically trying them for 
generations, and they make great living. 

The ultimate ground of practical assurance about anything 
is that we have tried it and that it works. A man may have 
experience that other persons exist, may draw the inference 
that friendly relations with them are not impossible, but only 
when he launches out and verifies his thought in an ad- 
venture will he really be convinced of friendship's glory. In 
no other way has final assurance about God come home to 
man. They who have lived as though God were have been 
convinced that he is; they who have willed to do his. will have 
known. 

That religious faith does justify itself in life is a fact to 
123 



IV-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

-which mankind's experience amply testifies. Men have come 
to God, not as chemists to bread curious to analyze it; they 
have come as hungry men, needing to eat if they would live. 
And they have found life glorified by faith in him. The dif- 
ference between religion and irreligion here is plain. How 
seldom one finds enthusiastic unbelievers! When all that is 
fine spirited and resolute in agnostic literature is duly weighed 
and credited, the pessimistic undertone is always heard. 
Leslie Stephen thus summarizes life — "There is a deep sad- 
ness in the world. Turn and twist the thought as you may 
there is no escape. Optimism would be soothing if it were 
possible; in fact, *it is impossible, and therefore a constant 
mockery." No gospel burns in the unbeliever's mind, urgent 
for utterance; he has no inspiring outlooks to offer, no glad 
tidings to declare. The more intelligent he is the more plainly 
he sees this. With Clifford he laments that "the spring sun 
shines out of an empty heaven to light up a soulless earth" 
and feels "with utter loneliness that the Great Companion is 
dead"; with Romanes he frankly states, "So far as the ruina- 
tion of individual happiness is concerned, no one can have a 
more lively conception than myself of the possibly disastrous 
tendency of my work." An unbeliever whose admirable life 
raised the question as to the philosophy by which he guided 
it, gave this summary of his creed, "I am making the best of a 
bad mess." Unbelievers do not spontaneously utter in song 
the glory of a creed like this, and when they do write poetry, 
it is of a sort that music will not fit — 

"The world rolls round forever like a mill, 
It grinds out death and life and good and ill, 
It has no purpose, heart, or mind or will." 

When from poetry one turns to philosophy, he can see good 
reasons why hymnals and unbelief should be uncongenial. 
There is little to make life worth while in a creed which holds 
as Haeckel does that morality in man, like the tail of a 
monkey or the shell of a tortoise, is purely a physiological 
effect, and that man himself is "an affair of chance; the froth 
and fume at the wave-top of a sterile ocean of matter." 
Shall the practical unserviceableness of such an idea for the 
purpose of life, awaken no suspicion as to its truth? 

Upon the other hand, suppose that by some strange chance 
124 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES ' [V-c] 

the principles of Jesus should over night take possession of 
mankind. Even as it is, when one starts his thought with the 
Stone Age, the progress of mankind has obviously been 
immense. From universal cannibalism after a battle, to mas- 
sacre without cannibalism marked one great advance; from 
massacre of all prisoners taken in war to enslavement of them 
marked another; and when slavery ceased being a philan- 
thropic improvement, as it was at first, and became a sin 
and shame, humanity took another long step forward. With 
all our present barbarity, a far look backwards shows a clear 
ascent. As for the influence of Jesus, Lecky, the historian, 
tells us that "The simple record of three short years of 
Christ's active life has done more to regenerate and soften 
mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all 
the exhortations of moralists." What if this process were 
brought to its fulfilment between sunset and dawn, and the 
new day came with every one sure of God's fatherhood and 
life eternal, of the law of love and the supremacy of char- 
acter and with everyone living as though these were true? 
Whatever intellectual perplexities of belief a man may have, 
he knows that such a world would be divinely great. No 
war, no evil lust, no covetous selfishness, no drunkenness! 
Mankind, relieved of ancient burdens which have ruined char- 
acter and crushed endeavor, confident of faiths that give life 
infinite horizons and deathless hopes, in cooperative interna- 
tional fraternity would be making the earth a decent home 
for God to rear his children in. One finds it hard to believe 
that ideas which, incarnate in life, would so redeem the world 
are false. 

As to the effect of the Christian affirmations on individual 
character, we do not need to picture an imagined future. A 
Character has been here who has lived them out. A jury of 
philosophers might analyze the wood-work and the metals of 
an organ, and guess from form and material what it is, but 
we still should need for our assurance a musician. When he 
sweeps the keys in harmony we know that it is an organ. So 
when the philosophers have debated the pros and cons of 
argument concerning faith, Jesus plays the Gospel. His life 
is the Christian affirmations done into character. When reli- 
gious faith, at its best, is incarnate in a Man, this is the con- 
sequence. And multitudes of folk, living out the implica- 
tions of the faith, have found the likeness of the Master grow- 

125 



IV-c] • THE MEANING OF FAITH 

ing in them. Weighty confirmation of the Gospel's truth 
arrives when its meaning is translated into life; the world 
will not soon reject the New Testament in this edition— bound 
in a Man. " 

To one in perplexity about belief, this proper question there- 
fore rises : What do we think about the Christlike character ? 
Is it not life at its sublimest elevation? But to acknowledge 
that and yet to deny the central faiths by which such life is 
lived is to say that those ideas which, incarnate, make living 
great are false, and those ideas which leave life meager of 
motive and bereft of hope are true. No one lives on such 
a basis in any other realm. We always mistrust the validity 
of any idea which works poorly or not at all. And so far 
from being a practical makeshift, this "negative pragmatism" 
is a true principle of knowledge. Says Professor Hocking, of 
Harvard, "If a theory has no consequences, or bad ones; if 
it makes no difference to men, or else undesirable differences ; 
if it lowers the capacity of men to meet the stress of existence, 
or diminishes the worth to them of what existence they have; 
such a theory is somehow false, and we have no peace until 
it is remedied. ,, The last word against irreligion is that it 
makes life unlivable ; the last word for faith is that it makes 
life glorious. 

VI 

One who is facing intellectual difficulties in the way of 
faith may well consider that the very Christian life for whose 
possession he is seeking justification is itself an argument of 
the first importance. This life grew up in the universe ; it 
is one expression of the universe ; and it is hard to think that 
it does not reveal a nature kindred to itself in the source 
from which it came. 

Mankind has always experienced a relationship with the 
Unseen which has seemed like communion of soul with 
Soul. When a psychologist like Professor James, of Har- 
vard, reduces to its most general terms this religious Fact 
which has been practically universal in the race, he puts it 
thus : "Man becomes conscious that this higher part (his spir- 
itual life) is coterminous and continuous with a more of 
the same quality, which is operative in the universe outside of 
him, and which he can keep in working touch with, and in a 
fashion get on board of and save himself when all his lower 

126 



INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES [V-c] 

being has gone to pieces in the wreck." No experience of man 
is more common in occurrence, more tremendous in result 
than this. From the mystics whose vivid sense of God can- 
celed their consciousness that anything else was real, to plain 
folk who in the strength of the divine alliance have lived 
ordinary lives with extraordinary spirit, mankind as a whole 
has known that the best in man is in contact with a more. 

One does not need to be of a mystical temperament, given 
to raptures, to know what this means. Let him consider his 
own experience of love and duty, how he is bound by them to 
his ideals and woven into a community of personal life not 
only with his friends but with all humanity, until this spirit- 
ual life of his becomes the most august and commanding 
power he knows. When in our bodies we so discern a physical 
nature, whose laws and necessities we did not create, and 
whose power binds us into a community of need and labor 
with our fellows, our conclusion is confident. This experience 
is the basis of our assurance that a physical universe is really 
here. When, likewise in our inner selves we find a spiritual 
life, which man did not create, in obedience to which alone is 
safety, and peace, and power, what shall we conclude? That 
there is a spiritual universe as plainly evidenced in man's soul 
as the physical universe is in the body ! And when we note the 
attributes of this Spiritual Order, how it demands righteous- 
ness, rebukes sin, welcomes obedience and holds out ideals of 
endless possibility, it is plain that we are talking about some- 
thing close of kin to God. As in summer we beat out through 
some familiar bay, naming the headlands as we sail, until if 
we go far enough, we cannot prevent our eyes from looking 
out across the unbounded sea, so if a man moves out through 
his own familiar -spiritual life far enough, he comes to the 
Spiritual Order which is God. Man has not drifted into his 
religion by accident or fallen on it merely as superstition ; 
he has moved out from his inner life to affirm a Spiritual 
Order as inevitably as he has moved out from his bodily expe- 
riences to affirm a physical universe. 

When from this general experience we turn to the specific 
experiences of religion, which prayer and worship represent, 
the testimony of the race is confident. Men have not all these 
ages been lifting up their souls to an unreality from which 
no response has come. The artesian well of transforming 
influence in human souls has not flowed from Nowhere. 

127 



[V-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 






Some, indeed, hearing confidence in God founded on the indi- 
vidual experiences of man, derisively cry "Nonsense !" But 
if one were to prove that the Sistine Madonna is beautiful, 
he would have to offer his experience in evidence. "I went 
to Dresden," he might say, "up into the room where the Ma- 
donna hangs . . . and it is beautiful. I saw it." Met with 
derision by a doubter, as though his experience were no proof 
at all, how shaU he proceed? "I am not the only one," he 
might continue, "who has perceived its beauty. All these cen- 
turies the folk best qualified to judge have gone up into that 
room and have come down again, sure that Raphael's work is 
beautiful." Is anyone in a position to deride that? So 
through all ages men and women, from lowest savages to the 
race's spiritual kings and queens, have gone up to the Divine, 
and, at their best, from experiences of prayer, worship, for- 
given sins, transfigured lives, have come down sure that Real- 
ity is there. One may not call nonsense the most universal 
and influential experience of the human race! 

The force of this fact is more clearly seen when one con- 
siders that man has grown up in this universe, gradually de- 
veloping his powers and functions as responses to his environ- 
ment. If he has eyes, so the biologists assure us, it is be- 
cause the light waves played upon the skin and eyes came out 
in answer; if he has ears it is because the air waves were 
there first and ears came out to hear. Man never yet, accord- 
ing to the evolutionist, has developed any power save as a 
reality called it into being. There would be no fins if there 
were no water, no wings if there were no air, no legs if there 
were no land. Always the developing organism has been 
trying to "catch up with its environment." Yet some would 
tell us that man's noblest power of all has developed in a 
vacuum. They would say that his capacity to deal with a Spir- 
itual World, to believe in God, and in prayer to experience 
fellowship with him, has all grown up with no Reality to call 
it into being. If so, it stands alone in man's experience, the 
only function of his life that grew without an originating 
Fact to call it forth. It does not seem reasonable to think 
that. The evidence of man's experience is overwhelmingly 
in favor of a Reality to which his spirit has been trying to 
answer. Said Max Muller, "To the philosopher the existence 
of God may seem to rest on a syllogism ; in the eyes of the 
historian it rests on the whole evolution of human thought." 

128 






CHAPTER VI 

Faith's Greatest Obstacle 

DAILY READINGS 

The speculative doubts leave many minds untouched, but 
one universal human experience sooner or later faces every 
serious life with questions about God's goodness. We all 
meet trouble, in ourselves or others, and oftentimes the 
wonder why in God's world such calamities should fall, such 
wretchedness should continually exist, plunges faith into per- 
plexity. Few folk of mature years can fail to understand 
Edwin Booth when he wrote to a friend, "Life is a great 
big spelling book, and on every page we turn the words grow 
harder to understand the meaning of." Now, the basis of any 
intelligent explanation of faith's problem must rest in a 
right practical attitude toward trouble. To the consideration 
of that we turn in the daily readings. 

Sixth Week, First Day 

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as 
though a strange thing happened unto you: but insomuch 
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice; that 
at the. revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with 
exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of 
Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the 
Spirit of God resteth upon you. For let none of you 
suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a 
meddler in other men's matters: but if a man suffer as a 
Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify 
God in this name. . . . Wherefore let them also that 
suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in 
well-doing unto a faithful Creator. — I Pet. 4: 12-16, 19. 

Such an attitude toward trouble as Peter here recommends 
is the most wholesome and hopeful possible to man. And it 
is reasonable too, if only on the ground that trouble develops 

129 



[VI-i] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

in men the essential qualities of strong character. Our high- 
est admiration is always reserved for men who master diffi- 
cult crises. If the story of Joseph, begun beside Bedouin 
camp fires centuries ago, can easily be naturalized beside 
modern radiators ; if Robinson Crusoe, translated into every 
tongue is understood by all, the reason lies in the depth of 
man's heart, where to make the most out of untoward situa- 
tions is a daily problem. Not every one can grasp the argu- 
ment or perceive the beauty of "Paradise Lost" and "Para- 
dise Regained," but one thing about them every man appreci- 
ates — the blind Milton, sitting down to write them : 

"I argue not 
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer 
Right onward." 

The full understanding of Ole Bull's playing on the violin 
was necessarily restricted to the musical, but no restriction 
bounds the admiration of men, learned or simple, when in a 
Munich concert, his A string snaps and he finishes the com- 
position on three strings. That is the human problem in 
epitome. Getting music out of life's remainders after the 
break has come ; winning the battle with what is left from 
a defeat; going blind, like Milton, and writing sublimest 
poetry, or deaf, like Beethoven, and composing superb son- 
atas ; being reared in an almshouse and buried in Westminster 
Abbey, like Henry M. Stanley; or, like Kernahan, born with- 
out arms or legs and yet sitting at last in the British Parlia- 
ment — all such hardihood and undiscourageable pluck reach 
back in a man's bosom beyond the strings that ease and luxury 

(can touch, and strike there an iron, reverberating chord. 
Nothing in human life is so impressive as pluck, "fighting 
with the scabbard after the sword is gone." And no one who 
deeply considers life can fail to see that our best character 
comes when, as Peter says, we "suffer as a Christian." 

O Lord our God, let our devout approach to Thee be that 
of the heart, not of the lips. Let it be in obedience to Thy 
spiritual law, not to any outward ritual. Thou desirest not 
temples nor offerings, but the sacrifice of a lowly and grate- 
ful heart Thou, will not despise. Merciful Father, to all Thy 
dispensations we would submit ourselves, not grudgingly, 

130 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-2] 

not merely of necessity, but because we believe in Thy wisdom, 
Thy universal rule, and Thy goodness. In bereavement and in 
sorrow, in death as in life, in joys and in happiness, we would 
see Thy Hand. Teach us to see it; increase our faith where 
we cannot see; teach us also to love justice, and to do mercy, 
and to walk humbly with Thee our God. Make us at peace 
with all mankind, gentle to those who offend us, faithful in 
all duties, and sincere in sorrow when we fail in duty. Make 
us loving to one another, patient in distress, and ever thankful 
to Thy Divine power, which keeps, and guides, and blesses 
us every day. Lord, accept our humble prayer, accomplish 
in us Thy holy will. Let Thy peace reign in our hearts, and 
enable us to walk with Thee in love; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. — Francis H. Newman, 1805. 

Sixth Week, Second Day 

Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and 
thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no cer- 
tain dwelling-place; and we toil, working with our own 
hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we en- 
dure; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth 
of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now. 
— I Cor. 4: 11-13. 

If Paul could be questioned about the experience of trouble 
which these verses vividly express, would he not say that 
there had been qualities of character in him and resources 
in his relationship with God which he never would have 
known about had it not been for the test of adversity? 
Trouble not only develops but also reveals character; we do 
not know ourselves until we have been tried out in calamity. 
The simplest demand of adversity on every man is that he 
be "game." Henry Newbold is not indulging in rhetoric 
alone when he describes at Waterloo a British square made 
up of Rugby graduates, hard beset before the charge of 
Napoleon's cuirassiers, and in that imminent crisis, makes 
the cry of a Rugby football captain, "Play up, boys, play the 
game !" rally the men and save the day. At Rugby or at 
Waterloo the problem is the same; the sling with which 
David plays in his youth is his chief reliance* when Goliath 
comes ; a "game" spirit is essential to character from birth 
to death. We turn from the story of Nelson at Aboukir, 

131 



[VI-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 






nailing six flags to his mast so that if even five were shot 
away no one would dream that he had surrendered, to find 
that the spirit there exemplified is applicable to our most 
common day. The quality which made Nelson an Admiral 
of England, in spite of his lost arm, his lost eye, his small 
stature, and his feeble health is one of our elemental needs. 
And to a supreme degree this quality was in great Christians 
like Paul. Read his letter to the Philippians and see! 
Adversity brought his spirit to light, and made it an asset 
of the cause. In a real sense, trouble, however forbidding, 
was one of Paul's best friends, and there was a good reason 
why he should "rejoice in tribulations." 

O Father of spirits! Thou lovest whom Thou chastenest! 
Correct us in our weakness as the children of men, that we 
may love Thee in our strength as the sons of God. May 
the same mind be in us which was also in Jesus Christ, that 
we may never shrink, when our hour comes, from drinking 
of the cup that he drank of. Wake in us a soul to obey 
Thee, not with the weariness of servile spirits, but with the 
alacrity of the holy angels. Fill us with a contempt of evil 
pleasures and unfaithful ease; sustain us in the strictness of 
a devout life. Daily may we crucify every selfish affection, 
and delight to bear one another's burdens, to uphold each 
other's faith and charity, being tender-hearted and forgiving 
as we hope to be forgiven. Hold us to the true humility of 
the soul that has not yet attained; and may we be modest in 
our desire, diligent in our trust, and content with the disposals 
of Thy Providence. O Lord of life and death! Thy counsels 
are secret; Thy wisdom is infinite: we know not what a day 
may bring forth. When our hour arrives, and the veil be- 
tween the worlds begins to be lifted before us, may we freely 
trust ourselves to Thee, and say, "Father, into Thy hands 
I commend my spirit, " Amen. — James Martineau. 

Sixth Week, Third Day 

If adversity, rightly used, so develops and reveals charac- 
ter, we may expect to find trouble as a background to the 
most admirable men of the race. We read the luminous his- 
tories of Francis Parkman and do not perceive, behind the 
printed page, the original manuscript, covered with a screen 

132 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-3] 

of parallel wires, along which the blind author ran his pencil 
that he might write legibly. We think of James Watt as a 
genius at invention, and perhaps recall that Wordsworth 
said of him, "I look upon him, considering both the magni- 
tude and the universality of his genius, as perhaps the most 
extraordinary man that this country ever produced." But 
Watt himself we forget — sickly of body, starving on eight 
shillings a week, and saying, "Of all things in life there is 
nothing more foolish than inventing." Kant's philosophy 
was a turning point in human thought, but lauding Kant, how 
few recall his struggle with a broken body! Said he, speak- 
ing of his incurable illness, "I have become master of its 
influence in my thoughts and actions by turning my attention 
away from this feeling altogether, just as if it did not at 
all concern me." Wilberforce, the liberator of British slaves, 
we know, and beside his grave in Westminster Abbey we 
recall the superb title that he earned, "the attorney general 
of the unprotected and of the friendless," but the Wilber- 
force who for twenty years was compelled to use opium 
to keep himself alive, and had the resolution never to in- 
crease the dose — who knows of him? One of the chief 
rewards of reading biography is this introduction that it 
gives to handicapped men; the knowledge it imparts of the 
world's great saints and scripture makers, conquerors and 
reformers, who, in the words of Thucydides, "dared beyond 
their strength, hazarded against their judgment, and in ex- 
tremities were of excellent hope." And when one turns to 
the supreme Character, could the dark background be elimi- 
nated and still leave Him? 

But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. 
But we behold him who hath been made a little lower 
than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of 
death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace 
of God he should taste of death for every man. For it 
became him, for whom are all things, and through whom 
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory to make 
the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 
—Heb. 2: 8-10. 

God, who art unsearchable in Thy judgments, and in 
Thy ways past finding out, we bow before the mystery of 
Thy Being, and confess that we know nothing, and can say 

133 



IVI-4] 



THE MEANING OF FAITH 



nothing worthy of Thee. We cannot understand Thy deal- 
ings with us. We have faith, not sight; when we cannot 
see, we may only believe. Sometimes Thou seemest to have 
no mercy upon us. Thou dost pierce us through our most 
tender affections, quenching the light of our eyes in dreadful 
darkness. Death tears from us all that we love, and Thou 
art seemingly deaf to all our cries. Our earthly circum- 
stances are reversed and bitter poverty is appointed us, yet 
Thou takest no heed, and bringest no comfort to the sorrow 
and the barrenness of our life. Still would we trust in Thee 
and cling to that deepest of our instincts which tells us that 
we come from Thee and return to Thee. Be with us, Father 
of Mercies, in love and pity and tenderness unspeakable. 
Lift our souls into Thy perfect calm, where all our wills 
are in harmony with Thine. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 



Sixth Week, Fourth Day 

(To one perplexed and disheartened by adversity, a theo- 
retical explanation is generally not half as valuable as con- 
crete instances of courage and fortitude, founded on faith. 
5 Whether we be theologians or scientists or as ignorant of 
both as Caliban, there is an immediate, personal call to arms 
in the brave fight of George Matheson, one of Scotland's 
great preachers for all his blindness, or in Louis Pasteur's 
indomitable will, making his discoveries despite the paralytic 
stroke that in his forty-sixth year crippled his strength. The 
qualities which we admire in them are a sort of apotheosis 
of the qualities which we need in ourselves. For we all are 
handicapped, some by ill-starred heredity, by unhappy en- 
vironment, or by the consequences of our own neglect and 
sin; some by poverty, some by broken bodies, or by dis- 
severed family ties — and all of us by unfortunate dispositions. 
It does us good then to know that Phillips Brooks failed 
as a teacher. His biographer tells us that so did his first 
ambition to be an educator cling to him, that in the prime 
of life, when he was the prince of preachers, he came from 
President Eliot's office, pale and trembling, because he had 
refused a professorship at Harvard. So Robertson, of 
Brighton, whose sermons began a new epoch in British Chris- 
tianity, was prevented from being a soldier only by the feeble- 
ness of his body, and Sir Walter Scott, who wanted to be 

134 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-4] 

a poet, turned to novel writing, anonymously and tentatively 
trying a new role, because, as he frankly put it, "Because 
Byron beat me." He is an excellent cook who knows how to 
make a good dinner out of the left-overs, and hardly a more 
invigerating truth is taught by history than that most of the 
finest banquets spread for the delectation of the race have 
been prepared by men who made them out of the leavings 
of disappointed hopes. 

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, 
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run 
with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
Jesus the author and perfecter of our. faith, who for the 
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising 
shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne 
of God. For consider him that hath endured such gain- 
saying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, 
fainting in your souls. — Heb. 12: 1-3. 

Our Father, we thank Thee that while we are sure of Thy 
protecting care, Thy causal providence, which foresees all 
things, we can bear the sorrows of this world, and do its 
duties, and endure its manifold and heavy cross. We thank 
Thee that when distress comes upon us, and our mortal 
schemes vanish into thin air, we know there is something 
solid which we can lay hold of, and not be frustrate in our 
hopes. Yea, we thank Thee that when death breaks asunder 
the slender thread of life whereon our family jewels are 
strung, and the precious stones of our affection fall from 
our arms or neck, we know Thou takest them and elsewhere 
givest them a heavenly setting, wherein they shine before the 
light of Thy presence as morning stars, brightening and 
brightening to more . perfect glory, as they are transfigured 
by Thine own almighty power. 

We thank Thee for all the truth which the stream of time 
has brought to us from many a land and every age. We thank 
Thee for the noble examples of human nature which Thou 
hast raised up, that in times of darkness there are wise men, 
in times of doubt there are firm men, and in every peril there 
stand up heroes of the soul to teach us feebler men our duty, 
and to lead all of Thy children to trust in Thee. Father, we 
thank Thee that the seed of righteousness is never lost, but 

135 



[VI-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

through many a deluge is carried safe, to make the wilder- 
ness to bloom and blossom with beauty ever fragrant and 
ever new, and the desert bear corn for men and sustain the 
souls of the feeble when they faint. Amen. — Theodore 
Parker. 

Sixth Week, Fifth Day 

One distinguishing mark of the men who have won their 
victories with the remnants of their defeat is that they refuse 
to describe their unideal conditions in negative terms. If 
they cannot live in southern California where they would 
choose to live, but must abide in New England instead, they 
do not describe New England in terms of its deficiencies — 
no orange groves, no acres of calla lilies, no palm trees. 
There are compensations even in New England, if one will 
carefully take account of stock and see what positively is 
there ! Or if a man would choose to live in Boston and must 
live in Labrador, the case of Grenfell suggests that a posi- 
tive attitude toward . his necessity will discover worth, and 
material for splendid triumphs even on that inhospitable 
coast. The mark of the handicapped men who have made 
the race's history glorious has always been their patriotism 
for the country where they had to live. They do not stoj 
long to pity themselves, or to envy another's opportunity, or 
to blame circumstances for their defeat, or to dream of wha 
might have been, or to bewail their disappointed hopes. I 
the soil of their condition will not grow one crop, the: 
discover what it will grow. They have insight, as did Moses 
to see holy ground where an ordinary man would have seei 
only sand and sagebrush and sheep. 

Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father 
in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to th 
back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of Goc 
unto Horeb. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto hir 
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he lookec 
and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush wa 
not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside nov 
and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. An 
when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God calle 
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Mose 
Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw nc 
nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for tl 

136 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-6] 

place whereon thou standest is holy ground. — Exodus 
3*. i-5. 

Father of life, and God of the living, Fountain of our being 
and Light of all our day ; we thank Thee for that knowledge 
of Thyself which lights our life with eternal splendor, for 
that giving of Thyself which has made us partakers of Thy 
divine nature. We bless Thee for everything around us 
which ministers Thee to our minds; for the greatness and 
glory of nature, for the history of our race, and the lives 
of noble men; for the thoughts of Thee expressed in human 
words, in the art of painters and musicians, in the work of 
builders and craftsmen. We bless Thee for the constant 
memories of what we are that rise within ourselves; for the 
pressure of duty, the hush of solemn thoughts, for moments 
of insight when the veil on the face of all things falls away, 
for hours of high resolve when life is quickened within, for 
seasons of communion when, earth and sense forgotten, heaven 
holds our silent spirits raptured and aflame. 

J¥e have learned to praise Thee for the darker days when 
we had to walk by faith, for weary hours that strengthened 
patience and endeavor, for moments of gloom and times of 
depression which taught us to trust, not to changing tides 
of feeling, but to Thee who changest not. And now since 
Christ has won His throne by His cross of shame, risen 
from His tomb to reign forever in the hearts of men, we know 
that nothing can ever separate us from Thee; that in all 
conflicts we may be more than conquerors; that all dark and 
hostile things shall be transformed and work for good to 
those who know the secret of Thy love. 

Glory be to Thee, O Lord. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Sixth Week, Sixth Day 

When folk have seen into human life deeply enough so 
that they perceive how adversity can be used to high issues, 
faith in God becomes not so much a speculative problem as a 
practical need. They want to deal with trouble nobly. They 
see that faith in God gives the outlook on life which makes 
the hopeful facing of adverse situations reasonable and which 
supplies power to make it possible. The result is that the 
great sufferers have been the great believers. The idea that 
fortunate circumstances make vital faith in God probable is 

137 



[VI-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

utterly unsupported by history. Hardly an outstanding cham- 
pion of faith who has left an indelible impress on man's 
spiritual life can anywhere be found, who has not won his 
faith and confirmed it in the face of trouble. What is true 
of individuals is true of generations. The days of Israel's 
triumphant faith did not come in Solomon's reign, when 
wealth was plentiful and national ambitions ran high. The 
great prophets and the great psalms stand out against the 
dark background of the Exile and its consequences. 

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah; 
awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient 
times. Is it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that 
didst pierce the monster? Is it not thou that driedst up 
the sea, the waters of the great deep; that madest the 
depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 
And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with 
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their 
heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away. 

I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, 
that thou art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son 
of man that shall be made as grass; and hast forgotten 
Jehovah thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and 
laid the foundations of the earth; and fearest continually 
all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when 
he maketh ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the 
oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; 
and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither 
shall his bread fail. For I am Jehovah thy God, who 
stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah 
of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy 
mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, 
that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of 
the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. — Isa. 
51: 9-i6. 

That is a voice out of the Exile. Such great believers, 
whose faith shone brightest when the night was darkest, 
have not pretended to know the explanation of suffering in 
God's world. But they have had insight to see a little and 
trust for the rest. Stevenson has expressed their faith : "If 
I from my spy-hole, looking with purblind eyes upon a least 
part of a fraction of the universe, yet perceive in my own 
destiny some broken evidences of a plan, and some signals 

138 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-7] 

of an overruling goodness; shall I then be so mad as to 
complain that all cannot be deciphered? Shall I not rather 
wonder, with infinite and grateful surprise, that in so vast 
a scheme I seem to have been able to read, however little, 
and that little was encouraging to faith?" 

We thank Thee, O God, that Thou dost ride upon the cloud, 
and govern the storm. All that to us is dark is light to 
Thee. The night shine th as the day. All that which seems 
to us irregular and ungoverned, is held in Thine hand, even 
as the steed by the rein. From age to age Thou dost control 
the long procession of events, discerning the end from the 
beginning ; and all the wild mixture, all the confusion, all the 
sorrow and the suffering, is discerned of Thee. As is the 
palette to the color, as is violence to development in strength, 
as is the crushing of the grape to the wine, so in Thy sight 
all things are beneficent that to us are most confusing and 
seemingly conflicting and threatening. Sorrow and pain and 
disaster are woven in the loom of God; and in the end we, 
too, shall be permitted to discern the fair pattern, and under- 
stand how that which brought tears here shall bring right- 
eousness there. 

O, how good it is to trust Thee, and to believe that Thou 
art wise, and that Thou art full of compassion, as Thou 
carriest on Thy great work of love and benevolence, sym- 
pathising with all that suffer on the way, and gathering them 
at last with an exceeding great salvation! We trust Thee, 
not because we understand Thee, but because in many things 
Thou hast taught us where we should have been afraid to 
trust. We have crossed many a gulf and many a roaring 
stream upon the bridge of faith, and have exulted to find 
ourselves safe landed, and have learned to trust Thee, as a 
child a parent, as a passenger the master of a ship, not 
because we know, but because Thou knowest. Amen. — 
Henry Ward Beecher. 

Sixth Week, Seventh Day 

Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, 
and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who 
built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, 
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon 
that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the 

139 



[VI-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, 
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, 
who built his house upon the sand: and the rain de- 
scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and 
smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the 
fall thereof. — Matt. 7: 24-27. 

An important fact is here asserted by the Master, which 
is commonly obscured in the commentaries. He says that 
no matter whether a man's life be built on sand or on rock, 
he yet will experience the blasts of adversity; on both houses 
alike "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds 
blew." The Master repeatedly affirmed that trouble comes 
without necessary reference to character, that while we may 
always argue that sin causes suffering, we never can con- 
fidently argue that suffering comes from sin (Luke 13: 4; 
John 9: 1-3). Folks needlessly and unscripturally harass 
their souls when they suppose that some special trouble must 
have befallen them because of some special sin. The book of 
Job was written to disprove that, and as for the Master, he 
distinctly says that the man of faith with his house on a 
rock faces the same storm that wrecks the faithless man. 
The difference is not in the adversity, but in the adversity's 
effect. No more important question faces any soul than this : 
seeing that trouble is an unevadable portion of every life, 
good or bad, what am I to do with it? Says Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, "Did you ever happen to see that most soft-spoken 
and velvet-handed steam-engine at the Mint? The smooth 
piston slides backward and forward as a lady might slip 
her delicate finger in and out of a ring. The engine lays 
one of its fingers calmly, but firmly, upon a bit of metal; 
it is a coin now, and will remember that touch, and tell a new 
race about it, when the date upon it is crusted over with 
twenty centuries. So it is that a great silent-moving misery 
puts a new stamp on us in an hour or a moment— as sharp 
an impression as if it had taken half a lifetime to engrave 
it." The only flaw in that simile is that the coin cannot decide 
what impression shall be made. But we can. Rebellion, 
despair, bitterness, or triumphant faith — we can say which 
impression adversity shall leave upon us. 

God of our life, Whom we dimly apprehend and never 
can comprehend, to Whom nevertheless we justly ascribe all 

140 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

goodness as well as all greatness; as a father teaches his 
children, so teach us, Lord, truer thoughts of Thee. Teach 
us to aspire, 'so far as man may lawfully aspire, to a knowl- 
edge of Thee. Thou art not only a God to be honored in 
times of rest and ease, Thou art also the Refuge of the 
distressed, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Healer of the 
contrite, and the Support of the unstable. As we sympathize 
with those who are sore smitten by calamity, wounded by 
sudden accident, wrecked in the midst of security, so must 
we believe that Thy mighty all-embracing heart sympathizes. 
Pitier of the orphan, God of the widow, cause us to share 
Thy pity and become Thy messengers of tenderness in our 
small measure. Be Thou the Stay of all in life and death. 
Teach all to know and trust Thee, give us a portion here 
and everywhere with Thy saints; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. — Francis W. Newman, 1805. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 



Few who have sincerely tried to believe in God's goodness 
and who have lived long enough to face the harrowing facts 
of human wretchedness will doubt what obstacle most 
hampers faith. The major difficulty which perplexes many 
Christians, when they try to reconcile God's love with their 
experience, is not belief's irrationality but life's injustice. 
According to the Psalmist, "The fool hath said in his heart, 
'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). But the fool is not the 
only one who has said that. He said it, jeering; he announced 
it in derision ; he did not want God, and contemptuous denial 
was a joy. It was the temper of his negation that made him 
a fool. But many hearts, in tones far different from his, 
have said, "There is no God." Parents cry it brokenheartedly 
beside the graves of children ; the diseased cry it, suffering 
from keener agony than they can bear ; fathers cry it when 
their battle against poverty has failed and their children plead 
in vain for bread ; and men who care about their kind say it 
as they watch the anguish with which war, drunkenness, lust, 
disease, and poverty afflict the race. No man of moral insight 
will call such folk fools. The wretchedness and squalor, the 
misery and sin which rest upon so much of humankind are a 
notorious difficulty in the way of faith. 

141 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

In dealing with this problem two short cuts are often tried, 
and by them some minds endeavor to evade the issue which 
faith ought to meet. Some minimize the suffering which 
creation cost and which man and animals are now enduring. 
We must grant that when we read the experience of animals 
in terms of man's own life, we always exaggerate their pain. 
Animals never suffer as we do ; their 'misery is not com- 
pounded by our mental agonies of regret and fear; and even 
their physical wretchedness is as much lower in intensity as 
their nerves are less exquisitely tuned. Darwin, who surely 
did not underestimate the struggle for existence, said in a 
letter, "According to my judgment, happiness decidedly pre- 
vails. All sentient beings have been formed so as to enjoy, 
as a general rule, happiness. " We must grant also that man's 
practical attitude toward life gives the lie to pessimism. Only 
the suicides are the logical pessimists, and all the rest of men, 
most with good heart and multitudes with jubilant enthusiasm, 
do actually cling to life. Indeed, all normal men discover, 
that, within limits, their very hardships are a condition of 
their happiness and do not so much abate their love of life 
as they add zest and tang. We must grant further that suf- 
fering should be measured not by quantity, but by intensity. 
One sensitive man enduring bereavement, poverty, or disease 
represents all the suffering that ever has been or ever can be 
felt. To speak of limitless suffering, therefore, is false. 
There is no more wretchedness anywhere nor in all the world 
together, than each one can know in his own person. 

When all this, however, has been granted, the facts of the 
world's misery are staggering. Modern science has given 
terrific sweep and harrowing detail to Paul's assertion, "The 
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
now" (Rom. 8:22). Let one whose insight into misery's 
meanings is quickened by even a little imagination, try to sum 
up the agony of drunkards' homes, of bereaved families, of 
hospitals, insane asylums, jails, and prisons, of war with its 
unmentionable horrors — its blinded, deafened, maddened, 
raped — and no small palliatives can solve his problem. Rather 
he understands the picture which James Russell Lowell said 
he saw years ago in Belgium : an angel holding back the 
Creator and saying, "If about to make such a world, stay 
thine hand." 

Another short cut by which some endeavor to simplify the 
142 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

problem and content their thought is to lift responsibility for 
life's wretchedness from God's shoulders and to put it upon 
mans. Were man's sin no factor in the world, some say, life's 
miseries would cease ; all the anguish of our earthly lot stands 
not to God's responsibility but to man's shame. But the suf- 
ferings of God's creatures did not begin with man's ar- 
rival, and the pain of creation before man sinned is a longer 
story than earth's misery since. Let Romanes picture the 
scene: "Some hundred of millions of years ago, some mil- 
lions of millions of animals must be supposed to have become 
sentient. Since that time till the present, there must have 
been millions and millions of generations of millions and mil- 
lions of individuals. And throughout all this period of in- 
calculable duration, this inconceivable host of sentient organ- 
izations have been in a state of unceasing battle, dread, ravin, 
pain. Looking to the outcome, we find that more than one- 
half of the species which have survived the ceaseless struggle 
are parasitic in their habits, lower and insentient forms of 
life, feasting on higher and sentient forms, we find teeth and 
talons whetted for slaughter, hooks and suckers molded for 
torture — everywhere a reign of terror, hunger, sickness, with 
oozing blood and quivering limbs, with gasping breath and 
eyes of innocence that dimly close in deaths of cruel torture." 
Is man responsible for that? For cold that freezes God's liv- 
ing creatures, for lightning that kills them, for volcanoes that 
burn them, for typhoons that crush them — is man responsible? 
By no such easy evasion may we escape the problem which 
faith must meet. "In sober truth," as John Stuart Mill ex- 
claimed, "nearly all the things which men are hanged or im- 
prisoned for doing to one another, are Nature's everyday per- 
formances." Who can avoid seeing the patent contrast be- 
tween the Father of Jesus and the Creator of such a world? 
"The power that launches earthquakes and arms cuttlefish," 
said one perplexed believer, "has but a meager relationship to 
the power that blesses infants and forgives enemies." 

II 

Could we hold this problem at arm's length, discussing it 
in speculative moods when we grow curious about the make- 
up of the universe, our case would be more simple. But 
of all life's problems, this most certainly — sometimes creeping, 

143 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

sometimes crashing — invades our private lives. Every man 
has a date with adversity which he must keep and which ad- 
versity does not forget. One notes the evidence of this in 
every normally maturing life. As children we wanted happi- 
ness and were impatient, lacking it. Our cups of pleasure 
easily brimmed and overflowed. A Christmas tree or a birth- 
day party — and our hearts were like sun-parlors on cloudless 
days with all the windows open to the light! But the time 
comes to all when happiness like this is not our problem ; we 
recognize that it is gone; our Edens are behind us with nam- 
ing angels at the gate. We have had friends and lost them 
and something has gone from our hearts that does not return ; 
we have won successes which we do not estimate as highly 
in possession as we did in dreams, and it may be have lost 
what little we achieved ; we have sinned, and though forgiven, 
the scars are still upon us ; we have been weathered by the 
rains and floods and winds. Happiness in the old fashion we 
no longer seek. We want peace, the power to possess our 
souls in patience and to do our work. We want joy, which is 
a profound and spiritually begotten grace as happiness is not. 
This maturity which so has faced the tragic aspects of our 
human life is not less desirable than childhood ; it may be 
richer, fuller, steadier. We may think of it as Wordsworth 
did about the English landscape— that not for all the sunny 
skies of Italy would he give up the mists that spiritualize 
the English hills. But when trouble comes, life faces a new 
set of problems that childhood little knew. We have joined 
the human procession that moves out into the inevitable need 
of comfort and fortitude. 

The decisive crisis in many lives concerns the attitude which 
this experience evokes. Some are led by it more deeply into 
the meanings of religion. The Bible grows in their appre- 
hension with the enlarging of their lif e ; new passages become 
radiant as, in a great landscape, hills and valleys lately unil- 
lumined catch the rays of the rising sun. At first the human 
friendliness of Jesus is most real, and the Bible's stories of 
adventure for God's cause; then knightly calls to character 
and service become luminous ; but soon or late another kind 
of passage grows meaningful : "Now our Lord Jesus Christ 
himself, and God, our Father who loved us and gave us 
eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your 
hearts and establish them" (II Thess. 2: 16). Others, so far 

144 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

from being led by adversity into the deeper meanings of faith, 
renounce faith altogether, and fling themselves into open re- 
bellion against life and any God who may be responsible for 
its tragedy. They may not dare to say what James Thomson 
did, but they think it — 

"Who is most wretched in this dolorous place? 
I think myself ; yet I would rather be 
My miserable self than He, than He 
Who formed such creatures to his own disgrace. 

The vilest thing must be less vile than Thou 
From whom it had its being, God and Lord ! 
Creator of all woe and sin ! abhorred, 

Malignant and implacable ! I vow 

That not for all Thy power furled and unfurled, 
For all the temples to Thy glory built, 
Would I assume the ignominious guilt 

Of having made such men in such a world!" 

Many, however, are not by adversity made more sure of 
God, nor are they driven into rebellion against him. They are 
perplexed. It had been so much easier, in the sheltered and 
innocent idealism of their youth, to believe in God than it is 
now. As children they looked on life as they might have 
listened to Mozart's music, ravished with unqualified delight; 
but now they know that Mozart died in abject poverty, that 
the coffin which his wife could not buy was donated by charity, 
that as the hearse went to the grave the driver loudly damned 
the dead because no drink money had been given him, and 
that to this day no one knows where Mozart's body lies. 
Maturity has to deal with so much more tragic facts than 
youth can ever know. With all the philosophy that man's wit 
can supply, the wisest find themselves saying what Emerson 
did, two years after his son's death: "I have had no expe- 
rience, no progress to put me into better intelligence with 
my calamity than when it was new." And in this inevitable 
wrestling with adversity, the cry of men is not simply for 
more courage. They might easily steady their hearts to en- 
dure and overcome, were only one question's answer clear — 
is there any sense in life's suffering? The one unsupportable 
thought is that all life's pain and hardship is meaningless and 
futile, that it has no worthy origin, serves no high purpose, 

145 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

that in misery we are the sport of forces that have no con- 
sciousness of what they do, no meaning in it and no care. 
Such folk want to believe in God, but — can they? 



Ill 

Two preliminary facts about Christianity's relationship with 
our problem may help to clarify our thought. The doubt 
sometimes obtrudes itself on minds perplexed about life's 
tragedies that the Christian's faith in a God of love is an 
idealistic dream. Such faiths as the Fatherhood of God have 
come to men, they think, in happy hours when calamity was 
absent or forgotten ; they are the fruition of man's fortunate 
days. And born thus of a view of life from which the mis- 
eries of men had been shut out, this happy, ideal faith comes 
back to painful realities with a shock which it cannot sus- 
tain. But is Christian faith thus the child of man's happy 
days? Rather the very symbol of- Christianity is the Cross. 
Our faith took its rise in one of history's most appalling trag- 
edies, and the Gospel of a loving God, so far from being an 
ideal dream, conceived apart from life's forbidding facts, has 
all these centuries been intertwined with the public brutality 
of a crucifixion. Every emphasis of the Christian's faith has 
the mark of the Cross upon it. Jesus had said in words that 
God was love, but it was at Calvary that the words took 
fire : "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
son" (John 3:16). Jesus had preached the divine forgive- 
ness, but on Golgotha the message grew imperative : "God 
commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). Jesus had put 
into parables the individual care of the Father for every 
child, but it was the Cross that drove the great faith home: 
Christ tasted "death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). Nothing in 
Christian faith has escaped the formative influence of the 
Tragedy. The last thing to be said about the Gospel is that 
it is a beautiful child-like dream which has not faced the 
facts of suffering. In the New Testament are all the miseries 
on which those who deny God's love count for support. 
We are at home there with suffering men : "they were stoned, 
they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain 
with the sword : they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins ; 
being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was 

146 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves 
and the holes of the earth" (Heb. n : 37, 38). The men with 
whom Christianity began were not strangers to such trouble, 
so that some modern need remind their innocent and dream- 
ing faith that life is filled with mysterious adversity. Chris- 
tianity was suckled on adversity; it was cradled in pain. At 
the heart of its Book and its Gospel is a Good Man crowned 
with thorns, nailed to a cross, with a spear wound in his side. 

Nor have the great affirmations of faith in God's fatherhood 
ever been associated with men of ease in fortunate circum- 
stance. The voice that cried "Father, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit" spoke in agonizing pain. And through his- 
tory one finds those words best spoken with a cross for a 
background. Thomas a Becket said them, martyred in his 
own cathedral ; John Huss said them, going to the stake at 
Constance ; George Wishart said them, roasted at the foot of 
the sea-tower of St. Andrews. Christian faith is not a dream 
that came in hours when human trouble had been forgotten; 
it has furnished from the beginning an interpretation of hu- 
man trouble and an attitude in meeting it that has made men 
"more than conquerors." 

The second preliminary fact is this : Christianity has never 
pretended to supply a theoretical explanation of why suffer- 
ing had to be. This seeming lack has excellent reason, for 
such an explanation, if it be complete, is essentially beyond the 
reach of any finite mind. The most comprehensive question 
ever asked, some philosopher has said, was put by a child. 
"Why was there ever anything at all?" No finite mind can 
answer that. And next in comprehensiveness, and in pene- 
tration to the very pith of creation's meaning, is this query, 
"Why, if something had to be, was it made as it is?" One 
must be God himself fully to answer that, or to comprehend 
the answer, could it be written down. To expect therefore, 
from Christianity or from any other source a theoretical ex- 
planation that will plumb the depths of the mystery of suffer- 
ing is to cry for the essentially impossible. So Carlyle says 
with typical vividness : "To the minnow every cranny and 
pebble, and quality and accident of its little native creek may 
have become familiar ; but does the minnow understand the 
Ocean Tides and periodic Currents, the Trade-winds, and 
Monsoons, and Moon's Eclipses ; by all which the condition of 
its little Creek is regulated, and may, from time to time (un- 

147 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

miraculously enough), be quite overset and reversed? Such 
a minnow is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean 
the immeasurable All; his Monsoons and periodic Currents 
the mysterious Course of Providence through Aeons of 
Aeons." 

So far is this inability of ours to know all that we wish 
about the world a cause for regret, that it ought to be an 
occasion of positive rejoicing. If we could understand the 
universe through and through, how small and meager the uni- 
verse would have to be ! The fact is that we cannot under- 
stand anything through and through. If one is disheartened 
because he cannot pierce to the heart of Providence and know 
all its secrets, let him try his hand upon a pebble and see how 
much better he will fare. What is a pebble? If one define 
it roughly as granite he must ask what granite is ; if that be 
defined in terms of chemical properties, he must ask what they 
are; if they be defined as ultimate forms of matter, he must 
inquire what matter is ; and then he will be told that matter is 
a "mode of motion," or will be assured by a more candid 
scientist, like Professor Tait, that "we do not know and are 
probably incapable of (discovering what matter is." No one 
ever solves the innermost problems of a stone, but what can 
be done with stones our engineering feats are evidence. 

If, therefore, we recognize at the beginning that the ques- 
tion why suffering had to be is an ultimate problem, essen- 
tially insoluble by finite minds, we need not be dismayed. 
Two opposing mysteries are in the world — goodness and evil. 
If we deny God, then goodness is a mystery, for no one has 
ever yet suggested how spiritual life could rise out of an un- 
spiritual source, how souls could come from dust. If we 
affirm God, then evil is a mystery, for why, we ask, should 
love create a world with so much pain and sin? Our task is 
not to solve insoluble problems ; it is to balance these alter- 
natives — no God and the mystery of man's spiritual life, 
against God and the mystery of evil. Such a comparison is 
not altogether beyond our powers, nor are weighty considera- 
tions lacking to affect our choice. 

IV 

For one thing, we may well inquire, when we complain of 
this world's misery, what sort of world we are seeking in its 

148 






FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

place. Are we asking for a perfectly happy world? But hap- 
piness, at its deepest and its best, is not the portion of a 
cushioned life which never struggled, overpassed obstacles, 
bore hardship, or adventured in sacrifice for costly aims. A 
heart of joy is never found in luxuriously coddled lives, but 
in men and women who achieve and dare, who have tried 
their powers against antagonisms, who have met even sick- 
ness and bereavement and have tempered their souls in fire. 
Joy is begotten not chiefly from the impression of happy cir- 
cumstancs, but from the expression of overcoming power. 
Were we set upon making a happy world, therefore, we could 
not leave struggle out nor make adversity impossible. The 
unhappiest world conceivable by man would be a world with 
nothing hard to do, no conflicts to wage for ends worth while ; 
a world where courage was not needed and sacrifice was a 
superfluity. Beside such an inane lotos-land of tranquil ease 
this present world with all its suffering is a paradise. Men 
in fact find joy where in philosophy we might not look for 
it. Said MacMillan, after a terrific twelve-month with Peary 
on the Arctic continent: "This has been the greatest year of 
my life." 

The impossibility of imagining a worth-while world from 
which adversity had all been banished is even more evident 
when one grows ill-content to think of happiness as the 
goal of life. That we should be merely happy is not an ade- 
quate end of the creative purpose for us, or of our purpose 
for ourselves. In our best hours we acknowledge this in the 
way we handle trouble. However much in doubt a man may 
be about the theory of suffering, he knows infallibly how suf- 
fering practically should be met. To be rebellious, cursing 
fate and hating life; to pity oneself, nursing one's hurts in 
morbid self-commiseration — the ignobility of such dealing 
with calamity we indubitably know. Even where we fall 
feebly short of the ideal, we have no question what the ideal 
is. Wlien in biography or among our friends we see folk 
face crushing trouble, not embittered by it, made cynical, 
or thrust into despair, but hallowed, sweetened, illumined, 
and empowered, we are aware that noble characters do 
not alone bear trouble; they use it. As men at first faced 
electricity in dread, conceiving toward it no attitude be- 
yond building lightning-rods to ward away its stroke, but 
now with greater understanding harness it to do their 

149 



^ 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

will, so men, as they grow wise and strong, deal with their 
suffering. They make it the minister of character; they set 
it to build in them what nothing save adversity can ever 
build — patience, courage, sympathy, and power. They even 
choose it in vicarious sacrifice for the good of others, and 
by it save the world from evils that nothing save some one's 
suffering could cure. They act as though character, not hap- 
piness, were the end of life. And when they are at their 
best they do this not with stoic intrepidity, as though trouble's 
usefulness were but their fancy, but joyfully, as though a good 
purpose in the world included trouble, even though not intend- 
ing it. So Robert Louis Stevenson, facing death, writes to a 
friend about an old woman whose ventriloquism had fright- 
ened the natives of Vailima, "All the old women in the world 
might talk with their mouths shut and not frighten you or 
me, but there are plenty of other things that frighten us badly. 
And if we only knew about them, perhaps we should find 
them no more worthy to be feared than an old woman talk- 
ing with her mouth shut. And the names of some of these 
things are Death and Pain and Sorrow." 

Whatever, then, may be our theoretical difficulty about su 
f ering, this truth is clear : when we are at our best we prac- 
tically deal with suffering as though moral quality were the 
goal of life. We use adversity, as though discipline were its 
purpose and good its end. It is worth noting that the only 
theory which fully fits this noblest attitude toward trouble is 
Christianity. Men may think God a devil, as James Thomson 
sang, and yet may be practically brave and cheerful, but their 
theory does not fit their life. Men may believe in no God and 
no purpose in the world, and yet may face adversity with 
courage and hope, but their spirit belies their philosophy. 
When men are at their best in hardship they act as though the 
Christian faith in God were true, as though moral quality 
zvere the purpose of creation. g 

If now, we really want a world in which character is the 
end and aim — and no other world is worth God's making — we 
obviously may not demand the abolition of adversity. If one 
imagines a life from its beginning lapped in ease and utterly 
ignorant what words like hardship, sorrow, and calamity 
imply, he must imagine a life lacking every virtue that makes 
human nature admirable. Character grows on struggle ; with- 
out the overcoming of obstacles great quality in character is 

I'O 



i. 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

unthinkable. Whoever has handled well any calamitous event 
possesses resources, insights, wise attitudes, qualities of sym- 
pathy and power that by no other road could have come to 
him. For all our complaints against life's misery, therefore, 
and for all our inability to understand it in detail, who would 
not hesitate, foreseeing the consequence, to take adversity 
away from men? He who banishes hardship banishes hardi- 
hood ; and out of the same door with Calamity walk Courage, 
Fortitude, Triumphant Faith, and Sacrificial Love. If we 
abolish the cross in the world, we make impossible the Christ 
in man. It becomes more clear the more one ponders it, that 
while this is often a hard world in which to be happy, to men 
of insight and faith it may be a great world in which to build 
character. 

V 

Before too confidently, however, we accept this conclusion, 
there is one objection to be heard. So far is the world from 
being absolved from cruelty, on the plea of moral purpose, 
one may say, that its injustice is the very crux of its offense. 
See how negligent of justice the process of creation is! Its 
volcanoes and typhoons slay good and bad alike, its plagues 
are utterly indifferent to character; and in the human world 
which it embosoms some drunken Caesar sits upon the throne 
while Christ hangs on the cross. Who for a single day can 
watch the gross inequities of life, where good men so often 
suffer and bad men go free, and still think that the world 
has moral purpose in it? The Bible itself is burdened with 
complaint against the seeming senselessness and injustice of 
God. Moses cries : "Lord, wherefore hast thou dealt ill with 
this people? Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all" 
(Exodus 5 : 22, 23) ; Elijah laments, "O Jehovah, my God, hast 
Thou also brought evil upon the widow, with whom I sojourn, 
by slaying her son?" (I Kings 17: 20) ; Habakkuk complains, 
"Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, 
and holdest thy peace, when the wicked swalloweth up the 
man that is more righteous than he?" (Hab. 1 : 13) ; and Job 
protests, "Although thou knowest that I am not wicked, . . . 
yet thou dost destroy me" (Job 10: 7, 8). Man's loss of faith 
springs often from this utter disparity between desert and 
fortune. The time comes to almost every man when he looks 
on, indignant, desperate, at some gross horror uninterrupted, 

151 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

some innocent victim entreated cruelly. He understands 
Carlyle's impatient cry, "God sits in heaven and does nothing !" 

Natural as is this attitude, and unjust as many of life's 
tragic troubles are, we should at least see this : man must not 
demand that goodness straightway receive its pay and wrong 
its punishment. He may not ask that every virtuous deed be 
at once rewarded by proportionate happiness and every sin be 
immediately punished by proportionate pain. That, some 
might suppose, would put justice into life. But whatever it 
might put into life, such an arrangement obviously would take 
out character. The men whose moral quality we most highly 
honor were not paid for their goodness on Saturday night and 
did not expect to be. They chose their course for righteous- 
ness' sake alone, although they knew what crowns of thorns, 
what scornful crowds about their cross might end the journey. 
They did not drive close bargains with their fate, demanding 
insurance against trouble as the price of goodness. They 
chose the honorable deed for honor's sake; they chose it the 
more scrupulously, the more pleasure was offered for dis- 
honor ; their tone in the face of threatened suffering was like 
Milne's, Scotland's last martyr : "I will not recant the truth, 
for I am corn and no chaff;' and I will not be blown away 
with the wind nor burst with the flail, but I will abide both." 

Every man is instinctively aware and by his admiration 
makes it known, that the kind of character which chooses right, 
willing to suffer for it, is man's noblest quality. The words 
in which such character has found utterance are man's spirit- 
ual battle cries. Esther, going before the King, saying, "If I 
perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16); the three Hebrews, facing 
the fiery furnace saying, "Our God whom we serve is able to 
deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver 
us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto 
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods" (Dan. 3: 17, 
18) ; Peter and the apostles, facing the angry Council, say- 
ing, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5 : 29) ; 
Anaxarchus, the martyr, crying, "Beat on at the case of 
Anaxarchus ; Anaxarchus himself you cannot touch" ; Luther, 
defying the Emperor, "Here stand I; I can do no other" — 
most words of men are easily dispensable, but no words like 
these can man afford to spare. They are his best. And this 
sort of goodness has been possible, because God had not made 
the world as our complaints sometimes would have it. For 

152 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

such character, a system where goodness costs is absolutely 
necessary. A world where goodness was paid cash in pleasant 
circumstance would have no such character to show. Right and 
wrong for their own sakes would be impossible; only pru- 
dence and imprudence for happiness' sake could there exist. 
Out of the same door with the seeming injustice of life goes 
the possibility of man's noblest quality — his goodness "in 
scorn of consequence." Many special calamities no one on 
earth can hope to understand. But when one has granted that 
fitness to grow character is the only worthy test of creation, 
it evidently is not so simple as at first it seemed to improve 
the fundamental structure of the world. 

VI 

Indeed, when one in imagination assumes the task of 
omnipotence and endeavors to construct a universe that shall 
be fitted for the growth of character, he cannot long hesitate 
concerning certain elements which must be there. A system 
of regular lazv would have to be the basis of that world, for 
only in a law-abiding universe could obedience be taught. If 
the stars and planets behaved "like swarms of flies" and 
nothing could be relied upon to act twice in the same way, 
character and intelligence alike would be impossible. In 
this new world, remolded, "nearer to our heart's desire," 
progress also would be a necessity. A stagnant world cannot 
grow character. There must be real work to do, aims to 
achieve ; there must be imperfections to overpass and wrongs 
to right. Only in a system where the present situation is a 
point of departure and a better situation is a possibility, where 
ideal and hope, courage and sacrifice are indispensable can 
character grow. In this improved world of our dreams, free- 
will in some measure must be granted man. If character is 
to be real, man must not in his choice between right and 
wrong be as Spinoza pictured him, a stone hurled through 
the air, which thinks that it is flying ; he must have some con- 
trol of conduct, some genuine, though limited, power of 
choice. And in this universe which we are planning for char- 
acter's sake, individuals could not stand separate and unre- 
lated ; they must be woven into a community. Love which is 
the crown of character, lacking this, would be impossible.* 
What happens to one must happen to all ; good and ill alike 

153 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

must be contagious in a society where we are "members one 
of another." 

No one of these four elements could be omitted from a 
world whose test was its adaptability for character. Men 
with genuine power of choice, fused into a fellowship of 
social life, living in a law-abiding and progressive world — on 
no other terms imaginable to man could character be possible. 
Yet these four things contain all the sources of our misery. 
Physical law — what tragic issues its stern, unbending course 
brings with terrific incidence on man I Progress — how obvi- 
ously it implies conditions imperfect, wrong, through which 
we have to struggle toward the best ! Free-will — what a night- 
mare of horror man's misuse of it has caused since sin began ! 
Social fellowship — how surely the innocent must suffer with 
the guilty, how impossible for any man to bear the conse- 
quence of his own sin alone ! We may not see why these 
general conditions should involve the particular calamities 
which we bewail, but even our finite minds can see thus far 
into the mystery of suffering: all our trouble springs from 
four basic factors in the universe, without any one of which, 
great character would be impossible. 

While, therefore, if one deny God, the mystery of goodness 
lacks both sense and solution ; one may affirm God and find 
the mystery of evil, mysterious still but suffused with light. 
God is working out a spiritual purpose here by means with- 
out which no spiritual purpose is conceivable. Fundamentally 
creation is good. We misuse it, we fail to understand its 
meaning and to appropriate its discipline, and impatient be- 
cause the eternal purpose is not timed by our small clocks, we 
have to confess with Theodore Parker, "The trouble seems to 
be that God is not in a hurry and I am." In hours of insight, 
however, we perceive how little our complaints will stand the 
test of dispassionate thought. Our miseries are not God's 
inflictions on us as individuals, so that we may judge his char- 
acter and his thought of us by this special favor or by that 
particular calamity. The most careless thinker feels the poor 
philosophy of Lord Londonderry's petulant entry 'in his 
journal: "Here I learned that Almighty God, for reasons 
best known to himself, had been pleased to burn down my 
house in the county of Durham." One must escape such 
narrow egoism if he is to understand the purposes of God ; 
one must rise to look on a creation, with character at all costs 

154 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

for its aim, and countless aeons for its settling. In the making 
of this world God has limited himself; he cannot lightly do 
what he will. He has limited himself in creating a law-abid- 
ing system where his children must learn obedience without 
special exemptions ; in ordaining a progressive system where 
what is is the frontier from which men seek what ought to 
be; in giving men the power to choose right, with its inevit- 
able corollary, the power to choose wrong; in weaving men 
into a communal fellowship where none can escape the con- 
tagious life of all. What Martineau said of the first of these 
is true in spirit of them all : "The universality of law is God's 
eternal act of self limitation or abstinence from the move- 
ments of free affection, for the sake of a constancy that shall 
never falter or deceive." 

When once a man has risen to the vision of so splendid a 
purpose in so great a world, he rejoices in the outlook. 
Granted that now he sees in a mirror darkly, that many a 
cruel event in human life perplexes still — he has seen enough 
to give solid standing to his faith. What if an insect, someone 
has suggested, were born just after a thunderstorm began 
and died just before it stopped — how dark would be its pic- 
ture of creation ! But we who span a longer period of time, 
are not so obsessed by thunderstorms, although we may not 
like them. They have their place and serve their purpose; 
we see them in a broader perspective than an insect knows 
and on sultry days we even crave their coming. A broken 
doll is to a child a cruel tragedy, but to the father watch- 
ing the child's struggle to accept the accident, to make the 
best of it and to come off conqueror, the event is not utterly 
undesirable. He is not glad at the child's suffering, but with 
his horizons he sees in it factors which she does not see. 
So God's horizons infinitely overpass our narrow outlooks. 
There is something more than whimsy in the theologian's 
saying, which President King reports, that an insect crawl- 
ing up a column of the Parthenon, with difficulty and pain 
negotiating passage about a pore in the stone, is as well quali- 
fied to judge of the architecture of the Parthenon, as we of 
the infinitude of God's plans. Seeing as much as we have 
seen of sense and purpose in the structure of creation, we 
have seen all that our finite minds with small horizons could 
have hoped. We have gained ample justification for the atti- 
tude toward suffering which Dolly Winthrop in Silas Marner 

155 



[VI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

has immortalized: "Eh, there's trouble i' this world, and 
there's things as we can niver make out the rights on. And 
all as we've got to do is to trusten, Master Marner — to do the 
right thing as far as we know and to trusten. For if us, as 
knows so little, can see a bit o' good and rights, we may be 
sure as there's a good and a rights bigger nor what we can 
know — I feel it i' my own inside as it must be so." 

VII 

We may not truthfully leave our subject in such a case that 
faith's concern with human misery will seem to lie merely in 
giving adversity an explanation. Faith is concerned not alone 
to explain misery but to heal it. For while it is impossible 
without hardship to develop character, there are woeful 
calamities on earth that do not help man's moral quality; 
they crush and mutilate it; they are barbarous intruders on 
the plan of God and they have no business in his world. 
Some ills are such that no theory can reconcile them with the 
love of God and no man ought to desire such reconciliation ; 
in the love of God they ought to be abolished. Slavery must 
be a possibility in a world where man is free ; but God's 
goodness was not chiefly vindicated by such a theory of ex- 
planation. It was chiefly vindicated by slavery's abolishment. 
The liquor traffic and war, needless poverty in a world so 
rich, avoidable diseases that science can overcome — how long 
a list of woes there is that faith should not so much explain 
as banish ! When some ills like drunkenness and war and 
economic injustice are thrust against our faith, and men ask 
that the goodness of God be reconciled with these, faith's first 
answer should be not speculation but action. Such woes, so 
far from being capable of reconciliation with God's good- 
ness, are irreconcilable with a decent world. God does not 
want to be reconciled with them; he hates them "with a per- 
fect hatred." We may not make ourselves patient with them 
by any theory of their necessity. They are not necessary; 
they are perversions of man's life; and the best defense of 
faith is their annihilation. 

Indeed, a man who, rebellious in complaint, has clamorously 
asked an explanation of life's ills as the price of faith in 
God, may well in shame consider God's real saints. When 
things were at their worst, when wrong was conqueror and 

156 



FAITH'S GREATEST OBSTACLE [VI-c] 

evils that seemed blatantly to deny the love of God were in 
the saddle, these spiritual soldiers went out to fight. The 
winds of ill that blow out our flickering faith made their 
religion blaze — a pillar of fire in the night. The more evil 
they faced, the more religion they produced to answer it. 
They were the real believers, who "through faith subdued 
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises." In 
comparison with such, it is obviously paltry business to drive 
a bargain with God that if all goes well we will believe in him, 
but if things look dark, then faith must go. 

Many a man, therefore, who is no philosopher can be a 
great defender of the faith. He may not weave arguments 
to prove that such a world as this in its fundamental structure 
is fitted to a moral purpose. But he can join the battle to 
banish from the world those ills that have no business here 
and that God hates. He can help produce that final defense 
of the Christian faith — a world where it is easier to believe in 
God. 



15* 



CHAPTER VII 

Faith and Science 

DAILY READINGS 

The intellectual difficulties which trouble many folk in- 
volve the relations of faith with science, but often they do 
not so much concern the abstract theories of science as they 
do the particular attitudes of scientists. We are continually 
faced with quotations from scientific specialists, in which 
religion is denied or doubted or treated contemptuously, and 
even while the merits of the case may be beyond the ordinary 
man's power of argument, he nevertheless is shaken by the 
general opinion that what ministers say in the pulpit on Sun- 
day is denied by what scientists say all the rest of the week. 
In the daily readings, therefore, we shall deal with the 
scientists themselves, as a problem which faith must meet. 

Seventh Week, First Day 

No one can hope to deal fairly with the scientists, in their 
relationship with faith, unless he begins with a warm apprecia- 
tion of the splendid integrity and self-denial which the 
scientific search for truth has revealed. 

Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 

Or loose the bands of Orion? 

Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? 

Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train? 

Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? 

Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the earth? 

Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, 

That abundance of waters may cover thee? 

Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, 

And say unto thee, Here we are? 

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? 

Or who hath given understanding to the mind? 

158 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-i] 

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? 

Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven, 

When the dust runneth into a mass, 

And the clods cleave fast together? — Job 38: 31-38. 

Such is man's ancient wonder before the physical uni- 
verse; and in the endeavor to discover the truth about it 
science has developed saints and martyrs whose selfless and 
sacrificial spirit is unsurpassed even in the annals of the 
Church. Men have spent lives of obscure and unrewarded 
toil to get at a few new facts ; they have suffered persecu- 
tion, and, even when racked like Galileo until he nearly was 
dismembered, have reaffirmed their truth as he did, "The 
earth does move." They have surrendered place and wealth, 
friends and life itself in their passion for the sheer truth, 
and when human service was at stake have inoculated them- 
selves with deadly diseases that they might be the means 
of discovering the cure, or have sacrificed everything that 
men hold most dear to destroy an ancient, popular, and hurt- 
ful fallacy. The phrase "pride of science" is often used in 
depreciation of the scientists. There is some excuse for the 
phrase, but in general, when one finds pride, dogmatism, in- 
tolerance, they are the work of ignorance and not of science. 
The scientific spirit has been characteristically humble. Says 
Huxley: "Science seems to me to teach in the highest and 
strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the 
Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. 
Sit down before the fact as a little child, be prepared to give 
up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and 
to whatever end nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. 
... I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind 
since I have resolved at all risks to do this." The Christian, 
above all others, is bound to approach the study of the con- 
troversy between science and theology with a high estimate 
of the integrity and disinterested unselfishness of the scien- 
tists. 

O God, we thank Thee for the world in which Thou hast 
placed us, for the universe whose vastness is revealed in the 
blue depths of the sky, whose immensities are lit by shining 
stars beyond the strength of mind to follow. We thank Thee 
for every sacrament of beauty ; for the sweetness of flowers, 
the solemnity of the stars, the sound of streams and swell- 

159 



[VII-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 






ing seas; for far-stretching lands and mighty mountains which 
rest and satisfy the soul, the purity of dawn which calls to 
holy dedication, the peace of evening which speaks of ever- 
lasting rest. May we not fear to make this world for a little 
while our home, since it is Thy creation and we ourselves 
are part of it. Help us humbly to learn its laws and trust 
its mighty powers. 

We thank Thee for the world within, deeper than we dare 
to look, higher than we care to climb; for the great kingdom 
of the mind and the silent spaces of the soul. Help us not 
to be afraid of ourselves, since we were made in Thy image, 
loved by Thee before the worlds began, and fashioned for 
Thy eternal habitation. May we be brave enough to bear 
the truth, strong enough to live in the light, glad to yield 
ourselves to Thee. 

We thank Thee for that world brighter and better than all, 
opened for us in the broken heart of the Saviour; for the 
universe of love and purity in Him, for the golden sunshine 
of His smile, the tender grace of His forgiveness, the red 
renewing rain and crimson flood of His great sacrifice. May 
we not shrink from its searching and surpassing glory, nor, 
when this world fades away, fear to commit ourselves to that 
world which shall be our everlasting home. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

Seventh Week, Second Day 

The Christian's appreciation of scientists should not stop 
short of profound gratitude for their service to religion. If 
one reads Burns's "Tarn o' Shanter," with its "ghaists," "war- 
locks and witches," and "auld Nick," and remembers that these 
demonic powers were veritable facts of terror once, he will 
see in what a world of superstitious fear mankind has lived. 
Bells were first put into church steeples, not to call folk 
to worship, but to scare the devils out of thunder-clouds, 
and the old cathedral bells of Europe are inscribed with 
declarations of that purpose. The ancients hardly believed 
in God so vividly as they believed in malicious demons every- 
where. Now the Gospel removed the fear of these from 
the first Christians ; it made men aware of a conquering 
alliance with God, so that believers no longer shared the 
popular dread of unknown demons. But so long as thunder- 

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FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-2] 

storms, pestilences, droughts, and every sort of evil were 
supposed to be the work of devils, even the Gospel could not 
dispel the general dread. Only new knowledge could do 
that. While Christianity therefore* at. its best has removed 
the fear of evil spirits, science has removed the fact of them 
as an oppressive weight on life. Today we not only do not 
dread them, but we do not think of them at all, and we have 
science to thank for our freedom. By its clear facing of 
facts and tracing of laws, science has lifted from man's 
soul an intolerable burden of misbeliefs and has cleansed 
religion of an oppressive mass of credulity. True religion 
never had a deadlier foe than superstition and superstition 
has no deadlier foe than science. Little children, brought up 
in our homes to trust the love of the Father, with no dark 
background of malignant devils to harass and frighten them, 
owe their liberty to the Gospel of Jesus indeed, but as well 
to the illumination of science that has banished the ancient 
dreads. 

These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding 
with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom 
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said 
unto you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto 
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not 
your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. — John 
14: 25-27. 

To God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, we pour 
forth most humble and hearty supplications, that Fie, remem- 
bering the calamities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this 
our life in which we spend our days, would please to open 
to us new consolations out of the fountain of His goodness 
for the alleviating of our miseries. We humbly and earnestly 
ask that human things may not prejudice such as are Divine, 
so that from the opening of the gates of sense, and the 
kindling of a greater natural light, nothing of incredulity 
. . . may arise in our minds towards Divine mysteries; but 
rather, O Lord, that our minds being thoroughly cleansed and 
purged from fancy, and yet subject to the Divine will, there 
may be given unto faith the things that are faith's, that so we 
may continually attain to a deeper knowledge and love of 
Thee, Who art the Fountain of Light, and dwellest in the 

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[VII-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Light which no man can approach unto ; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. — Francis Bacon, 1561. 

Seventh Week, Third Day 

If one approach the scientists, as we have suggested, with 
appreciation of their devoted spirit and of their beneficent 
service, he is likely to be fair and Christian in his judgment. 
For one thing, he will readily understand why some of 
them are not religious men. The laws of psychology are not 
suspended when religion is concerned ; there as elsewhere 
persistent attention is the price of a vivid sense of reality. 
When, therefore, a man habitually thinks intensely of noth- 
ing but biological tissue, or chemical reactions, or the diseases 
of a special organ, the results are not difficult to forecast. 
Darwin's famous confession that in his exacting concentra- 
tion on biology he utterly lost his power to appreciate music 
or poetry is a case in point. Said Darwin, "My mind seems 
to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws 
out of a large collection of facts." It is needless to say that 
such a mind is not likely to be more vividly aware of God 
than it is to feel music's beauty or poetry's truth. The 
plain fact is that if any man should persistently restrict him- 
self to a physical science, should never hear a symphony or 
an oratorio, should shut out from his experience any dealing 
with music or enjoyment of it, he would in the end lose all 
musical capacity, and would become a man whose apprecia- 
tion of music was nil and whose opinion on music was worth- 
less. Just such an atrophy of life is characteristic of intense 
specialists. When one understands this he becomes capable 
of intelligent sympathy with scientists, even when he does not 
at all agree with their religious opinions. Jude gives us a 
remarkable injunction, plainly applicable here. "On some 
have mercy who are in doubt." 

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy 
faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the 
love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ unto eternal life. And on some have mercy, who 
are in doubt; and some save, snatching them out of the 
fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating even 
the garment spotted by the flesh. 

Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, 
and to set you before the presence of his glory without 

162 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-4] 

blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, domin- 
ion and power, before all time, and now, and for ever- 
more. Amen. — Jude 20-25. 

O God, who so fillest all things that they only thinly veil 
Thy presence ; we adore Thee in the beauty of the world, in 
the goodness of human hearts and in Thy thought within the 
mind. We praise Thee for the channels through which Thy 
grace can come to us; sickness and health, joy and pain, free- 
dom and necessity, sunshine and rain, life and death. 

We thank Thee for all the gentle and healing ministries 
of life; the gladness of the morning, the freedom of the 
wind, the music of the rain, the joy of the sunshine, and the 
deep calm of the night; for trees, and flowers, the clouds, 
and skies; for the tender ministries of human love, the un- 
selfishness of parents, the love that binds man and woman, 
the confidence of little children; for the patience of teachers 
and the encouragement of friends. 

We bless Thee for the stirring ministry of the past, for 
the story of noble deeds, the memory of holy men, the 
printed book, the painter's art, the poet's craft; most of all 
for the ministry of the Son of Man, who taught us the 
eternal beauty of earthly things, who by His life set us free 
from fear, and by His death won us from our sins to Thee ; 
for His cradle, His cross, and His crown. 

May His Spirit live within us, conquer all the selfishness of 
man, and take away the sin of the world. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

Seventh Week, Fourth Day 

The tendency of scientific specialization to shut out the 
appreciation of life's other values has one notable result : 
the opinions of scientific specialists in the physical realm on 
matters of religion are generally not of major importance. 
There is a 'popular fallacy that an expert in one realm must 
be listened to with reverence on all subjects. But the fact 
is that a great physicist is not by his scientific eminence 
thereby qualified to talk wisely on politics or literature or reli- 
gion ; rather, so far as a priori considerations are concerned, 
he is thereby disqualified. Mr. Edison cannot say anything 
on electricity that is insignificant ; but when he gave an inter- 

163 



[VII-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

view on immortality he revealed to everyone who knew the 
history of thought on that subject and the issues involved 
in it, that on matters outside his specialty he could say things 
very insignificant. The more one personally knows great 
specialists, the more he sees how human they are, how inter- 
est in one thing shuts out interest in others, how the subject 
on which the mind centers grows real and all else unreal, how 
very valuable their judgment is on their specialties, and how 
much less valuable even than ordinary men's is their judg- 
ment on anything beside. This truth does not concern reli- 
gion only; it concerns any subject which calls into play ap- 
preciative faculties that their science does not use. For a 
man, therefore, to surrender religious faith because a special- 
ist in another realm disowns it is absurd. If one wishes, 
outside of those whose vital interest in religion makes them 
specialists there, to get confirmation from another class 
of men, let him look not to physicist's but to judges. They 
are accustomed to weigh evidence covering the general field 
of human life; and among the great judicial minds of this 
generation, as of all others, one finds an overwhelming pre- 
ponderance of religious men. 

But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for 
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, 
save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the 
things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. 
But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit 
which is from God; that we might know the things tha 
were freely given to us of God. Which things also w 
speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with 
spiritual words. Now the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto 
him; and he cannot know them, because they are spirit- 
ually judged. — I Cor. 2: 10-14. 

O Eternal and glorious Lord God, since Thy glory and 
honor is the great end of all Thy works, we desire that it 
may be the beginning and end of all our prayers and services. 
Let Thy great Name be glorious, and glorified, and sanctified 
throughout the world. Let the knowledge of Thee fill all 
the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let that be done in 
the world that may most advance Thy glory. Let all Thy 

164 






FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-5] 

works praise Thee. Let Thy wisdom, power, justice, good- 
ness, mercy, and truth be evident unto all mankind, that 
they may observe, acknowledge, and admire it, and magnify 
the Name of Thee, the Eternal God. In all the dispensation 
of Thy Providence, enable us to ste Thee, and to sanctify 
Thy Name in our hearts with thankfulness, in our lips with 
thanksgiving, in our lives with dutifulness and obedience. 
Enable us to live to the honor of that great Name of Thine 
by which we are called, and that, as we profess ourselves to 
be Thy children, so we may study and sincerely endeavor to 
be like Thee in all goodness and righteousness, that we may 
thereby bring glory to Thee our Father which art in heaven; 
that we and all mankind may have high and honorable 
thoughts concerning Thee, in some measure suitable to Thy 
glory, majesty, goodness, wisdom, bounty, and purity, and may 
in all our words and actions manifest these inward thoughts 
touching Thee with suitable and becoming words and actions; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — Lord Chief Justice 
Sir Matthew Hale, 1609. 

Seventh Week, Fifth Day 

So far in our thought we have tacitly consented to the 
popular supposition, that the scientists are at odds with 
religion. Many of them unquestionably are. But in view of 
the obsessing nature of scientific specialties, the wonder is 
not that some scientists are non-religious ; the wonder is that 
so many are profoundly men of faith in God. The idea that 
scientists as a whole are irreligious is untrue. Lists of 
testimonials from eminent specialists in favor of religion are 
not particularly useful, for, as we have said, the judgment of 
specialists outside their chosen realm is, at the most, no more 
valuable than that of ordinary men. But if anyone tries 
to rest his case against religion on the adverse opinions of 
great scientists, he easily can be driven from his position. 
Sir William Crookes, one of the world's greatest chemists, 
writes : "I cannot imagine the possibility of anyone with 
ordinary intelligence entertaining the least doubt as to the 
existence of a God — a Law-Giver and a Life-Giver." Lord 
Kelvin, called the "Napoleon of Science,' , said that he could 
think of nothing so absurd as atheism; Sir Oliver Lodge, 
perhaps the greatest living physicist and certainly an earnest 

16S 



[VII-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

believer, writes, "The tendency of science, whatever it is, 
is not in an irreligious direction at the present time" ; Sin 
George Stokes, the great physicist (died 1903), affirmed his 
belief that disbelievers among men of science "form a veryt 
small minority" ; and Sir James Geikie, Dean of the Faculty! 
of Science at Edinburgh University, impatiently writes, "It 
is simply an impertinence to say that 'the leading scientists 
are irreligious or anti-Christian/ Such a statement could only 
be made by some scatter-brained chatterbox or zealous 
fanatic." The fact is that, in spite of the tendency of high 
specialization to crowd out religious interest and insight, our 
great scientists have never thrown the mass of their influ- 
ence against religion, and today, in the opinion of one of their 
chief leaders, are growing to be increasingly men of religious 
spirit. Whatever argument is to be based on the testimony 
of the scientists is rather for religion than against it. 

For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the 
Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye 
show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for 
you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 
unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowl- 
edge of him ; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, 
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what 
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 
and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward 
who believe. — Eph. 1: 15-19. 

O Lord, Who by Thy holy Apostle hast taught us to do 
all things in the Name of the Lord Jesus and to Thy glory; 
give Thy blessing, we pray Thee, to this our work, that we 
may do it in faith, and heartily, as to the Lord, and not 
unto men. All our powers of body and mind are Thine, and 
we would fain devote them to Thy service. Sanctify them 
and the work in which we are engaged; let us not be slothful, 
but fervent in spirit, and do Thou, O Lord, so bless our 
efforts that they may bring forth in us the fruit of true 
wisdom. Strengthen the faculties of our minds, and dispose 
us to exert them for Thy glory and for the furtherance of 
Thy Kingdom. Save us from all pride and vanity and 
reliance upon our own power or wisdom. Teach us to seek 
after truth, and enable us to gain it; while we know earthly 

166 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-6] 

things, may we know Thee, and be known by Thee through 
and in Thy Son Jesus Christ, that we may be Thine in body 
and spirit, in all our work and undertakings; through Jesus 
Christ. Amen. — Thomas Arnold, 1795. 

Seventh Week, Sixth Day 

Far more important than the opinions of individual scien- 
tists for religion or against it, is the fact that scientists 
are coming increasingly to recognize the limitations of their 
field. The field of science is limited; its domain is the sys- 
tem of facts and their laws, which make the immediate en- 
vironment of man's life; but with the Origin of all life, with 
the character of the Power that sustains us and with the 
Destiny that lies ahead of us science does not, cannot deal. 
The most superficial observance shows how little any great 
soul lives within the confines of science's discoveries. Carlyle, 
after his great bereavement, writes to his friend Erskine : 

" 'Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, 
Thy will be done' — what else can we say? The other night 
in my sleepless tossings about, which were growing more 
and more miserable, these words, that brief and grand 
Prayer, came strangely to my mind, with an altogether new 
emphasis; as if written and shining for me in mild pure 
splendor, on the black bosom of the Night there; when I, 
as it were, read them word by word — with a sudden check 
to my imperfect wanderings, with a sudden softness of com- 
posure which was much unexpected. Not for perhaps thirty 
or forty years had I once formally repeated that prayer — 
nay, I never felt before how intensely the voice of man's 
soul it is ; the inmost aspiration of all that is high and pious 
in poor human nature." But supposing that the facts of 
science were all of reality and the laws of science all of 
truth, what sort of prayer could Carlyle have offered? An- 
other has suggested the form which the Lord's Prayer would 
take in a world that lacked religious faith : "Our brethren 
who are upon the earth, hallowed be our name; our King- 
dom come; our will be done on earth; for there is no 
heaven. We must get us this day our daily bread; we know 
we cannot be forgiven, for Law knows no forgiveness ; we 
fear not temptation, for we deliver ourselves from evil; for 
ours is the Kingdom and ours is the power, and there is no 

167 



[VII-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

glory and no forever. Amen." In such a barren prayer the 
whole of mafi's life is not represented. 

Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that 
he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, 
that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world 
is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh 
the wise in their craftiness: and again, The Lord knoweth 
the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. Wherefore 
let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether 
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 
and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. — I Cor. 3: 18-23. 

O Thou Infinite Spirit, who occupiest all space, who guid- 
est all motion, thyself unchanged, and art the life of all that 
lives, we flee unto thee, in whom we also live and move and 
have our being, and would reverence Thee with what is high- 
est and holiest in our soul. We know that Thou art not to 
be worshiped as though Thou needest aught, or askedst the 
psalm of praise from our lips, or our heart's poor prayer. 
O Lord, the ground under our feet, and the seas which whelm 
it round, the air which holds them both, and the heavens 
sparkling with many a fire — these are a whisper of the psalm 
of praise which creation sends forth to Thee, and we know 
that Thou askest no homage of bended knee, nor heart bowed 
down, 'nor heart uplifted unto Thee. But in our feebleness 
and our darkness, dependent on Thee for all things, we lift 
up our eyes unto Thee; as a little child to the father and 
mother who guide him by their hands, so do our eyes look up 
to Thy countenance, O Thou who art our Father and our 
Mother too, and bless Thee for all Thy gifts. We look to 
the infinity of Thy perfection with awe-touched heart, and 
we adore the sublimity which we cannot comprehend. We 
bow down before Thee, and would renew our sense of 
gratitude and quicken still more our certainty of trust, till 
we feel Thee a presence close to our heart, and are so strong 
in the heavenly confidence that nothing earthly can disturb 
us or make us fear. Amen. — Theodore Parker. 

Seventh Week, Seventh Day 

The difficulty which many Christians feel concerning science | 
centers around their loyalty to the Bible. They still are 

168 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-7] 

under the domination of the thought that the Christian idea 
of the Bible is the same as the Mohammedan idea of the 
Koran or the Mormon idea of Joseph Smith's sacred plates. 
The Koran was all written in heaven, word for word, say 
orthodox Mohammedans, before ever it came to earth. As 
for the Mormon Bible, God buried the plates on which he 
wrote, said Smith, and then disclosed their hiding place, and 
his prophet translated them verbatim, so that the Mormon 
book is literally inerrant. But this is not the Christian idea 
of the Bible. Inspiration is never represented in Scripture 
as verbal dictation where human powers and limitations are 
suspended, so that like a phonographic plate the result is a 
mechanical reproduction of the words of God. Rather God 
spoke to men through their experience as they were able 
to understand him, and as a result the great Christian Book, 
like a true Christian man, represents alike the inbreathing 
of the Divine and the limitation of the human. So the 
Epistle to the Hebrews clearly states that God did what he 
could in revealing partially to partial men what they could 
understand : 

God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the 
prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath 
at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom 
he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he 
made the worlds. — Heb. 1: 1, 2. 

Of all limitations that are entirely obvious in the ancient 
Hebrew-Christian world, the current view of the physical 
universe is the most unescapable. To suppose that God never 
can reveal to men anything about the world, transcending 
what the ancient Hebrews could understand, is to deny the 
principle which Jesus applied even to the more important 
realm of spiritual truth : "I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16: 12). 

O Thou who hast visited us with the Dayspring from on 
high, who hast made light to shine in the darkness, we praise 
Thy holy name and proclaim Thy wonderful goodness. 

We bless Thee for the dawning of the light in far-off ages 
as soon as human eyes could bear its rays. We remember 
those who bore aloft the torch of truth when all was false 
and full of shame; those far-sighted souls who from the 

169 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

mountain tops of vision heralded the coming day; those who 
labored in the darkened valleys to lift men's eyes to the 
hills. 

We thank Thee that in the fulness of the times Thou didst 
gather Thy light into life, so that even simple folk could see; 
for Jesus the Star of the morning and the Light of the world. 

We commemorate His holy nativity, His lowly toil, His 
lonely way; the gracious words of His lips, the deep 'com- 
passion of His heart, His friendship for the fallen, His love 
for the outcast; the crown of thorns, the cruel cross, the 
open shame. And we rejoice to know as He was here on 
earth, so Thou art eternally. Thou dost not abhor our flesh, 
nor shrink from our earthly toil. Thou rememberest our 
frailty, bearest with our sin, and tastest even our bitter cup 
of death. 

And now, we rejoice for the light that shines about our 
daily path from the cradle to the grave, and for the light 
that illumines its circuit beyond these spheres from our con- 
ception in Thy mind to the day when we wake in Thy image; 
for the breathing of Thy spirit into ours till we see Thee 
face to face: in God, from God; to God at last. Hallelujah. 
Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 



COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 



The innermost questions which some minds raise about re- 
ligion cannot be answered without candid discussion of the 
obvious contrasts between faith and science. The conflict be- 
tween science and theology is one of the saddest stories ever 
written. It is a record of mutual misunderstanding, of bitter- 
ness, bigotry, and persecution, and to this day one is likely 
to find the devotees of religion suspicious of science and scien- 
tists impatient with the Church. 

If we are to understand the reason for this controversy 
between science and theology, we must take a far look back 
into man's history. Stephen Leacock remarks that whenever 
a professor discusses anything, he has to retreat at least 2,000 
years to get a running start. Our retreat must be farther 
than that ; it carries us to the earliest stage in which we are 
able to describe the thoughts of men. At the beginning men 

170 



, 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-cJ 

attributed to superhuman spirits all activities in the world 
which they themselves did not perform. If the wind blew, a 
spirit did it; if the sun rose, a spirit moved it; if a storm 
came, a spirit drove it. Natural law was non-existent to the 
primitive man ; every movement in nature was the direct 
result of somebody's active will. From the mysterious whis- 
pering of a wind-swept field to the crashing thunder, what 
man did not cause the gods did. 

If, therefore, a primitive man were asked the cause of rain, 
he had but one answer : a god made it rain. That was his 
scientific answer, for no other explanation of rain could he 
conceive. That was his religious answer, for he worshiped 
the spirit on whom he must depend for showers. This sig- 
nificant fact, therefore, stands clear: To primitive man a 
religious answer and a scientific answer were identical. Sun- 
rise was explained, not by planetary movements which were 
unknown, but by the direct activity of a god, and the Dawn 
then was worshipped in the same terms in which it was ex- 
plained. The historic reason for the confusion between 
science and religion at once grows evident. At the beginning 
they were fused and braided into one ; the story of their re- 
lationship is the record of their gradual and difficult disen- 
tangling. 

Wherever peace has come between science and religion, one 
finds a realm where the boundaries between the two are 
acknowledged and respected. Ask now the question, What 
makes it rain? There is a scientific answer in terms of 
natural laws concerning atmospheric pressure and condensa- 
tion. There is also a religious answer, since behind all laws 
and through them runs the will of God. These two replies 
are distinct, they move in different realms, and are held to- 
gether without inconsistency. As Sabatier put it, "Since God 
is the final cause of all things, he is not the scientific explana- 
tion of any one thing." In how many realms where once con- 
fusion reigned between the believers in the gods and the 
seekers after natural laws, is peace now established ! Rain 
and sunrise, the tides and the eclipses, the coming of the sea- 
sons and the growing of the crops — -for all such events we 
have our scientific explanations, and at the same time through 
them all the man of religion feels the creative power of God. 
Peace reigns in these realms because here no longer do we 
force religious answers on scientific questions or scientific 

171 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

answers on religious questions. Evidently the old Deutero- 
nomic law is the solution of the conflict between science and 
religion : "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's land- 
mark" (Deut. 27: 17). 

II 

Left thus in the negative, however, this might seem to 
mean that we are to divide our minds into air-tight compart- 
ments, and allow no influences from one to penetrate another. 
But science and religion do tremendously affect each other, 
and no honest dealing ever can endeavor to prevent their 
mutual reaction. Our position is not thus negative; it affirms 
a positive and most important truth. Life has many aspects ; 
science, art, religion, approach it from different angles, with 
different interests and purposes ; and while they do influence 
each other, they are not identical and each has solid standing 
in its own right. When science has grown domineering, as 
though her approach to reality were the only one and her 
conclusions all of truth, the poets have had as much distaste 
for her as have the theologians. Shelley, who called him- 
self an atheist, had no interest in religion's conflict with the 
extreme claims of science ; yet listen to his aroused and flam- 
ing language as he pleads the case for poetry against her : 
"Poetry is something divine. . . . It is the perfect and con- 
summate surface and bloom of all things ; it is as the odor 
and color of the rose to the texture of the elements which 
compose it, and the form and splendor of unfaded beauty to 
the secrets of anatomy and corruption. What were virtue, 
love, patriotism, friendship — what were the scenery of this 
beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our consola- 
tions on this side of the grave — and what were our aspira- 
tions beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and 
fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty 
of calculation dare not even soar?" This involves no denial 
of science's absolute right to her own field— the "texture of 
the elements which compose" the rose, and the "secrets of 
anatomy." But it is a justified assertion that this field of 
science is not all of reality, and that what the "owl-winged 
faculty of calculation" can reach is not all of truth. 

What is a sunset? Science sets forth the answer in tables 
where the light waves that compose the colors are counted 

172 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-c] 

and the planetary movements that bring on the dusk are all 
explained. Poetry answers in a way how different 1 

"I've dreamed of sunsets when the sun, supine, 
Lay rocking on the ocean like a god, 
And threw his weary arms far up the sky, 
And with , vermilion-tinted fingers, 
Toyed with the long tresses of the evening star." 1 

Is one of these answers more true than the other? Rather it 
is absurd to compare their truth ; they are not contradictory ; 
they approach the same fact with diverse interests, and seek 
in it different aspects of reality. Each has its rights in its 
own field. And so far is it from being true that science has 
a clear case in favor of its own superior importance, that 
Hoffding, the philosopher, remarks, "It well may be that 
poetry gives more perfect expression to the highest Reality 
than any scientific concept can ever do." 

Any great fact is too manifold in its meanings to be ex- 
hausted by a single metrrod of approach. If one would know 
the Bible thoroughly, he must understand the rules of gram- 
mar. Were one to make grammar his exclusive specialty, 
the Bible to him, so far as he held strictly to his science, 
would be nouns and verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and preposi- 
tions, and the law-abiding relationships between them. This 
mere grammarian would know by such a method one aspect 
of the Bible, but how little of the Book would that aspect be ! 
No rules of grammar can interpret the thirteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians or explain the story of the Cross. The 
facts and laws of the Book's language a grammarian could 
know, but the beauty and the soul of it, the innermost trans- 
forming truth of it, would be unperceived. 

So life is too rich and various to be exhausted by any one 
approach. Science seeks facts and arranges them in systems 
of cause and effect. Poetry sees these bare facts adorned 
with beauty, she suffuses them with her preferences and her 
appreciations. Religion sees the whole gathered up into 
spiritual unity, filled with moral purpose and good will, and 
in this faith finds peace and power. There need be no conflict 
between these various approaches ; they are complementary, 
not antagonistic ; and no man sees all the truth by any one 

!J. G. Holland. 

173 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

of them alone. So a chemist might come to a spring to 
analyze it; a painter to rejoice in its beauties and reproduce 
therri on his canvas ; and a man athirst might come to drink 
and live. Shall they quarrel because they do not all come 
alike? Let them rather see how partial is the experience of 
each without the others! 



Ill 



In the mutual trespassing which has caused our problem, 
religion has had her guilty share, and the reason is not difficult 
.to find. God did not have to give a modern scientific educa- 
tion to his ancient Hebrew saints before he could begin to 
reveal to them something of his will and character. And 
they, writing their experience and thought of him, could no 
avoid — as no generation's writers can avoid — indicating th 
view of the physical world which they and their contempo 
raries held. It is easy, therefore, from scores of Scriptur 
passages to reconstruct the early Hebrew world. Their 
earth was flat and was founded on an underlying sea. 
(Psalm 136:6; Psalm 24:1, 2; Gen. 7:11); it was station- 
ary (Psalm 93:1; Psalm 104:5); the heavens, like an up- 
turned bowl, "strong as a molten mirror" (Job 37 : 18 ; Gen. 
1 : 6-8; Isa. 40: 22; Psalm 104: 2), rested on the earth beneath 
(Amos 9:6; Job 26:11); the sun, moon, and stars moved 
within this firmament, of special purpose to illumine man 
(Gen. 1 : 14-19) ; there was a sea above the sky, "the waters 
which were above the firmament" (Gen. 1:7; Psalm 148:4), 
.and through the "windows of heaven" the rain came down 
(Gen. 7: 11 ; Psalm 78:23) ; beneath the earth was mysterious 
Sheol where dwelt the shadowy dead (Isa. 14:9-11); and 
all this had been made in six days, a short and measurable 
time before (Gen. I). This was the world of the Hebrews. 

Because when the Hebrews wrote the Bible their thoughts 
of God, their deep experience of him, were interwoven with 
their early .science, Christians, through the centuries, have 
thought that faith in God stood or fell with early Hebrew 
science and that the Hebrew view of the physical universe 
must last forever. In the seventeenth century, Dr. John 
Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, 
said : "Heaven and earth, center and circumference, were 
created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of 

174 









FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-c] 

water. . . . This work took place and man was created 
by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B. C, at nine o'clock in 
the morning.'' Of what tragedy has this identification of 
science with religion been the cause ! 

When astronomy began to revolutionize man's idea of the 
solar universe, when for the first time in man's imagination 
the flat earth grew round and the stable earth began moving 
through space seventy-five times faster than a cannon-ball, 
Pope Paul V solemnly rendered a decree, that "the doctrine 
of the double motion of the earth about its axis and about 
the sun is false and entirely contrary to Holy Scripture." 
When geology began to show from the rocks' unimpeachable 
testimony the long leisureliness of God, laying the founda- 
tions of the world, a Christian leader declared geology "not 
a subject of lawful inquiry," "a dark art," "dangerous and dis- 
reputable," "a forbidden province," "an awful evasion of the 
testimony of revelation." This tragic record of theology's 
vain conflict with science is the most pitiable part of the 
Church's story. How needless it was ! For now when we 
face our universe of magnificent distances and regal laws has 
religion really suffered? Has a flat and stationary earth 
proved essential to Christianity, as Protestants and Catholics 
alike declared? Rather the Psalmist could not guess the 
sweep of our meaning when now we say, "The heavens declare 
the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork" 
(Psalm 19: 1). 

In the last generation the idea of evolution was the occa- 
sion of a struggle like that which attended the introduction 
of the new astronomy. How was the world made? asked 
the ancient Hebrew, and he answered, By the word of God 
at a stroke. That was his scientific answer, and his religious 
answer too. When, therefore, the evolving universe was dis- 
closed by modern science, when men read in fossil and in 
living biological structure the undeniable evidence of a long 
history of gradually changing forms of life, until the world 
was seen not made like a box but growing like a tree, many 
men of religion thought the faith destroyed. They identified 
the Christian Gospel with early Hebrew science ! Today, 
however, when the general idea of evolution is taken for 
granted as gravitation is, how, false this identification ob- 
viously appears ! Says Professor Bowne, "An Eastern king 
was seated in a garden, and one of his counselors was speak- 

175 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

ing of the wonderful works of God. 'Show me a sign/ said 
the king, 'and I will believe.' 'Here are four acorns/ said the 
counselor; 'will your Majesty plant them in the ground, and 
then stoop down and look into this clear pool of water?' The 
king did so. 'Now/ said the other, 'Look up.' The king 
looked up and saw four oak trees where he had planted the 
acorns. 'Wonderful !' he exclaimed ; 'this is indeed the work 
of God.' 'How long were you looking into the water?' asked 
the counselor. 'Only a second,' said the king. 'Eighty years 
have passed as a second,' said the other. The king looked 
at his garments ; they were threadbare. He looked at his 
reflection in the water ; he had become an old man. 'There is 
no miracle here, then,' he said angrily. 'Yes,' said the other; 
'it is God's work whether he do it in one second or in eighty 
years.' " 

Such an attitude as this is now a commonplace with Chris- 
tian folk. A vast and growing universe through which sweep 
the purposes of God is by far the most magnificent outlook 
for faith that man has ever had. The Gospel and Hebrew 
science are not identical ; the Gospel is not indissolubly bound 
to any science ancient or modern; for science and religion 
have separable domains. 

"A fire-mist and a planet, 

A crystal and a cell, 
A jelly-fish and a saurian, 

And caves where cave men dwell. 
Then a sense of Love and Duty 

And a face turned from the clod, 
Some call it Evolution 

And others— call it God." 

The same story of needless antagonism is now being written 
about religion and natural law. When science began plotting 
nature's laws, the control of the world seemed to be snatched 
from the hands of deity and given over to a system of im- 
personal rules. God, whose action had been defined in terms 
of miracle, was forced from one realm after another by the 
discovery of laws, until at last even comets were found to 
be not whimsical but as regular in their law-abiding courses 
as the planets, and God seemed to be escorted to the edge of 
the universe and bowed out. When Newton first formulated 

176 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-c] 

the law of gravitation, the artillery of many an earnest pul- 
pit was let loose against him. One said that Newton took 
"from God that direct action on his works so constantly 
ascribed to him in Scripture and transferred it to material 
mechanism" and that he "substituted gravitation for Provi- 
dence." But now, when science has so plainly won her case, 
in her own proper field; when we know to our glory and 
profit so many laws by which the world is governed, and use 
our knowledge as the most splendid engine of personal pur- 
pose and freedom which man ever had, we see how great our 
gain has been. Nor is it more a practical than a religious 
gain. God ofrce was thought of chiefly in terms of miraculous 
action ; he came into his world now and again, like the deus- 
ex-machina of a Greek tragedy, to solve a critical dilemma in 
the plot. Now all the laws we know and many more are his 
regular ways of action, and through them all continuously his 
purpose is being wrought. As Henry Drummond exclaimed, 
"If God appears periodically, he disappears periodically. If 
he comes upon the scene at special crises, he is absent from 
the scene in the intervals. Whether is all-God or occasional 
God the nobler theory?" 

Nothing, therefore, can be more pathetic than the self-styled 
"defenders of the faith" who withstand the purpose of rever- 
ent students to give scientific answers to scientific questions. 
Such men are not really defending the faith. They are doing 
exactly what Father Inchofer did when he said, "The opinion 
that the earth moves is of all heresies the most abominable"; 
what Mr. Gosse did when he maintained, in explanation of 
geology's discoveries, that God by the use of stratified rock 
and fossils deliberately gave the earth the appearance of de- 
velopment through long ages, while really he made it in six 
days ; what Mr. Southall did when, in the face of established 
anthropology, he claimed that the "Egyptians had no Stone 
age and were born civilized" ; what the Dean of Chichester 
did when he preached that "those who refuse to accept the 
history of the creation of our first parents according to its 
obvious literal intention, and are for substituting the modern 
dream of evolution in its place, cause the entire scheme of 
man's salvation to collapse." These were not defending the 
faith; they were making it ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent 
men and were embroiling religion in controversies where she 
did not belong and where, out of her proper realm, she was 

177 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 






foredoomed to defeat. For scientific problems are not a 
matter for faith; they are a matter for investigation. No one 
can settle by faith the movements of the planets, the method 
of the earth's formation, the age of mankind, the explanation 
of comets. These lie in science's realm, not in religion's, and 
religious faith demeans herself when she tries to settle them. 
Let science be the grammarian of the world to observe its 
parts of speech and their relations ! Religion deals with the 
soul of the world, its deepest source, its spiritual meaning, 
its divine purpose. 

IV 

Science, however, has not always been content with the 
grammarian's task. When we have frankly confessed reli- 
gion's sins in trespassing on scientific territory, we must note 
that science has her guilty share in the needless conflict. 
Today one suspects that the Church's vain endeavor by ec- 
clesiastical authority to force religious solutions on scientific 
problems is almost over. But the attempt of many scientists 
to claim the whole field of reality as theirs and to force their 
solutions on every sort of problem is not yet finished. This, 
too, is a vain endeavor. To suppose that the process of scien- 
tific observation and inference can exhaust the truth of life is 
like supposing that there is no more meaning in Westminster 
Abbey than is expressed in Baedeker. 

Scientists, for example, sometimes claim domains which are 
not theirs by spelling abstract nouns with capitals, by posit- 
ing Law or Evolution as the makers and builders of the world. 
But law never did anything; law is only man's statement of the 
way, according to his observation, in which things are done.' 
To explain the universe as the creation of Law is on a par 
with explaining homes as the creation of Matrimony. Ab- 
stract nouns do not create anything and the capitalizing of 
a process never can explain it. So, too, Evolution does 
nothing to the world; it is the way in which whoever makes 
the world is making it. As well explain the difference between 
an acorn and an oak by saying that Growth did it, as to ex- 
plain the progress of creation from Stardust to civilization by 
changing e to E. Science may describe the process as evolu- 
tionary, but its source, its moving power, and its destiny are 
utterly beyond her ken. 

For another thing, scientists often invade realms which 
178 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-c] 

are not theirs, by stretching the working theories of some 
special science to the proportions of a complete philosophy of 
life. A generation ago, when geology and biology were in 
their "green and salad days/' the enthusiasm inspired by the 
splendid results of their hypotheses went to strange lengths. 
One professor of geology seriously explained the pyramids 
of Egypt to be the remains of volcanic eruption which had 
forced, its way upwards by slow and stately motion. The 
hieroglyphs were crystalline formations and the shaft of 
the great pyramid was the airhole of a volcano. Scientists are 
human like all men ; their specialties loom large ; the ideas that 
work in their limited areas seem omnipotent. So a student of 
the influence of sunlight on life thinks reactions to the sun 
explain everything. "Heliotropism," he says, "doubtless 
wrote Hamlet." A specialist on the influence of geography on 
human nature interprets everything as the reaction of man to 
seas, mountains, plains, and deserts, and Lombroso even thinks 
the revolutionary temperament especially native to men who 
live on limestone formations ! Specialists in economic history 
are sure that man is little more than an animated nucleus of 
hunger and that all life is explicable as a search for food. 
And psychologists, charmed by the neatness of description 
which causal connections introduce into our inner life, leap 
to the conclusion, which lies outside their realm, that person- 
ality is an illusion, freedom a myth and our mental life the 
rattling of a causal chain forged and set in motion when the 
universe began. All this is not science; it is making hypo- 
theses from a limited field of facts masquerade as a total 
philosophy of life. 

The underlying reason why science, when she regarcls her 
province as covering everything, inevitably clashes with the 
interests of religion, is that she starts her view of the world 
from the sub-human side. The typical sciences are physics, 
chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology, and the view of the 
universe which they present is the basis on which all other 
sciences proceed. But this foundation is sub-human ; the 
master ideas involved in it are all obtained with the life of 
man left out of account. Such an approach presents a world- 
machine, immense and regular, and when, later, psychology 
and sociology arise, how easy it is to call the human life which 
they study a by-product of the sub-human world, an exuda- 
tion arising from the activities of matter. 

179 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Religion, on the contrary, starts with human life. Fall 
down in awe, Science cries, before this vast sub-human 
world ! And the religious man answers : What world is this I 
am to bow before? Is it not the universe which my mind 
knows and whose laws my intellect has grasped? This uni- 
verse, so far as it exists at all for me, is apprehended by my 
vision, penetrated by my thought, encompassed by my inter- 
pretations. What is really great and wonderful here; is not 
the world which I understand, but the mind that understands 
it — not the sub-human but the human. Man himself is the 
supreme Fact, and all the world that man could bow before, 
man's mind must first of all contain. The master truth is 
not that my mind exists within a physical universe, but that 
the physical universe is encompassed by my mind. There- 
fore, when I interpret life, I will start with man, and not with 
what lies below him. 

Romanes, the English scientist, illustrates in his experience 
the difference which these two approaches make. When, re- 
turning from agnosticism to Christianity, he explained his 
lapse, he said, "I did not sufficiently appreciate the immense 
importance of human nature, as distinguished from phys- 
ical nature, in any inquiry touching theism. . . . Human 
nature is the most important part of nature as a whole 
whereby to investigate the theory of theism. This I ought 
to have anticipated on merely a priori grounds, had I not 
been too much immersed in merely physical research." Of 
how many now does this same explanation hold! They 
segregate man from the rest of the universe, and endeavor 
an interpretation of the unhuman remainder. They forget 
that man is part and parcel of the universe, bone of its bone, 
as imperative an expression of its substantial nature as are 
rocks and stars, and that any philosophy which interprets the 
world minus man has not interpreted the world. 

Here is the difference between a Haeckel and a Phillips 
Brooks. All the dominant ideas of the one are drawn from 
existence minus man; all the controlling convictions of the 
other are drawn from the heights and depths of man's own 
life. The first approach inevitably leads to irreligion, for 
Spirit cannot reveal itself except in spirit and until one has 
found God in man he will not find him in nature. The second 
as certainly leads to religion, for, as Augustine said, "If you ; 
dig deep enough in every man you find divinity." Over 

180 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-c] 

against the testimony of the sub-human that there is a mechan- 
istic aspect to the world, stands the unalterable testimony of 
j the human that there is as well an ideal, purposive, and spir- 
i itual aspect to the world. Surely the latter brings us nearer 
i to the heart of truth. We never understand anything except 
in terms of its highest expression and man is the summit of 
I nature. 

Could religion find a voice, therefore, she would wish to 
i speak not in terms of apology but of challenge, when science, 
j assuming all of reality for its field, grows arrogant. Describe 
the aspect of the world that belongs to you, she would say. 
j I have learned my lesson; your field is yours, and no inter- 
| ference at my hands shall trouble you again. But remember 
] the limitations of your domain — to observe and describe phe- 
i nomena and to plot their laws. That is an immense task and 
f inexpressibly useful. But when you have completed it, the 
j total result will be as unlike the real world as a medical man- 
[ ikin with his wire nerves and painted muscles is unlike a real 
i man. The manikin is sufficiently correct; everything is truly 
pictured there — except life. So things are as science sees 
I them, but things are more than science sees. Plot then the 
mechanistic aspect of the world, but do not suppose that you 
have caught all of truth in that wide-meshed net! When 
you have said your last word on facts observed and laws in- 
duced, man rises up to ask imperious questions with which 
you cannot deal, to present urgent problems for which no 
solution ever has been found save Augustine's, "I seek for 
God in order that my soul may live" 



Our thought so ended, however, would leave science and 
religion jealously guarding their boundaries, not cooperating 
as allies. Such suspicious recognition of each other's realms 
does not exhaust the possibilities. When once the separate 
functions each by the other have been granted, we are free 
to turn our thought to the inestimable service which each is 
rendering. Consider the usefulness of science to the ideal 
causes of which religion is the chief ! Science has given us 
the new universe, not more marvelous in its vastness than in 
its unity. For the spectroscope has shown that everywhere 
through immeasurable space the same chemical properties and 

181 



[VII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

laws obtain ; the telescope has revealed with what mathe- 
matical precision the orbits in the heavens are traced and how 
unwaveringly here or among the stars gravitation maintains 
its hold. Man never had so immense and various and yet 
so single and unified a world before. Polytheism once was 
possible, but science has banished it forever. Whatever may 
be the source of the universe, it is one Source, and whoever 
the creator, he is more glorious in man's imagination than he 
could ever have been before. Science also has put at the 
disposal of the ideal causes such instruments as by them- 
selves they would never have possessed. We are hoping for 
a new world-brotherhood, and we pray for it in Christian 
churches as the Father's will. But the instruments by which 
the inter-racial fellowship must be maintained and without 
which it would be unthinkable are science's gift. Railroads, 
steamships, telegraphs, telephones, wireless — these are the 
shuttles by which the ideal faiths in man's fraternity may be 
woven into fact. When Christian physicians heal the sick or 
stamp out plagues that for ages have been man's curse and 
his despair, when social maladjustments are corrected by 
Christian philanthropy, and saner, happier ways of living are 
made possible; when comforts that once were luxuries are 
brought within the reach of all, and man's life is relieved of 
crushing handicaps ; when old superstitions that had filled 
man's life with dread for ages are driven like fogs before 
science's illumination, and religious faith is freed of their in- 
cumbrance; when great causes of relief have at their disposal 
the unimaginable wealth which our modern economic system 
has created — can anyone do sufficient justice to man's debt to 
science? And once more science has done religion an in- 
estimable service in establishing as a point of honor the ambi- 
tion to see straight and to report exactly. The tireless pa- 
tience, the inexorable honesty, the sacrificial heroism of 
scientists, pursuing truth, is a gift of incalculable magnitude. 
Huxley is typical of science at its best when he writes in his 
journal his ideal — "To smite all humbugs however big; to give 
a nobler tone to science; to set an example of abstinence 
from petty personal controversies and of toleration for every- 
thing but lying; to be indifferent as to whether the work is 
recognized as mine or not, so long as it is done." Countless 
obscurantisms and bigotries, shams* and sophistries have been 
driven from the churches by this scientific spirit and more 

182 



FAITH AND SCIENCE [VII-cJ 

are yet to go. Science has shown intellectual dishonesty to 
be a sin of the first rank. Christianity never can be thankful 
enough for science; on our knees we should be grateful for 
her as one of God's most indispensable gifts. Nor should 
the fact that many a scientist whose contributions we rejoice 
in was not certain about God defer our gratitude. Cyrus, the 
Persian, is not the only one to whom the Eternal has said, "I 
will gird thee, though thou hast not known me" (Isa. 45 : 5). 

When, however, science has done her necessary work, she 
needs her great ally, religion. Without the insight and hope 
which faith alone can bring, we learn a little about the world, 
our minds enclosed in boundaries beyond which is dark, un- 
fathomable mystery. We rejoice in nature's beauty and in 
friendship, suffer much with broken bodies and more with 
broken family ties, until we die as we were born — the spawn 
of mindless, soulless powers that never purposed us and never 
cared. And the whole universe is purposeless, engaged with 
blind hands, that have no mind behind them, on tasks that 
mean nothing and are never done. Science and religion should 
not be antagonists; they are mutually indispensable allies in 
the understanding and mastery of life. 



183 






CHAPTER VIII 

Faith and Moods 

DAILY READINGS 

The relationship of faith to feeling, rather than faith's 
relationship to mind, is with many people the more vital in- 
terest. The emotional results of faith are rightfully of in- 
tense concern to everyone, for our feelings put the sense 
of value into life. To see a sunset without being stirred by 
its beauty is to miss seeing the sunset; to have friends with- 
out feeling love for them is not to have friends ; and to 
possess life without feeling it to be gloriously worth while 
is to miss living. Now, in this regard, the attitude of faith 
stands sharply opposed to its direct contrary — the attitude 
of fear. Faith and fear are the two emotional climates, in 
one or the other of which everyone tends habitually to live. 
To the comparison of these we set ourselves in the daily 
readings. 

Eighth Week, First Day 

Give ear to my prayer, O God; 

And hide not thyself from my supplication. 

Attend unto me, and answer me : 

I am restless in my complaint, and moan, 

Because of the voice of the enemy, 

Because of the oppression of the wicked; 

For they cast iniquity upon me, 

And in anger they persecute me. 

My heart is sore pained within me: 

And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. 

Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, 

And horror hath overwhelmed me. 

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! 

Then would I fly away, and be at rest. 

Lo, then would I wander far off, 

I would lodge in the wilderness. 

—Psalm 55: 1-7. 
184 



FAITH % AND MOODS [VIII-i] 

How many people are slaves to the mood from which this 
psalmist suffered ! 'Tearfulness and trembling" are their 
habitual attitude toward life. They fear to die and just as 
much they fear to live; before every vexatious problem, be- 
fore every opposing obstacle, even before the common tasks 
and responsibilities of daily living, they stand in dread; and 
every piece of work is done by them at least three times — 
in previous worry, in anxious performance, and in regret- 
ful retrospect. Such fear imprisons the soul. No two men 
really live in the same world ; for while the outward geogra- 
phy may be identical, the real environment of each soul is 
created by our moods, tempers, and habits of thought. Fear 
builds a prison about the man, and bars him in with dreads, 
anxieties, and timid doubts. And the man will live forever 
in that prison unless faith sets him free. Faith is the great 
liberator. The psalmist who found himself a prisoner of 
"fearfulness and trembling" obtained his liberty and became 
a "soul in peace" (v. 18) ; and the secret of his freedom 
he revealed in the closing words of his psalm — "But I will 
trust in Thee." Faith of some sort is the only power that 
ever sets men free from the bondage of their timidities and 
dreads. If a man is the slave of fearfulness, there is no 
substance in his claim to be a man of faith; a man who has 
vital faith is not habitually fearful. And as Emerson said, 
"He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every 
day surmount a fear." 

O God, we remember with sadness our want of faith in 
Thee. What might have been a garden we have turned into 
a desert by our sin and wilfulness. This beautiful life which 
Thou hast given us we have wasted in futile worries and vain 
regrets and empty fears. Instead of opening our eyes to the 
joy of life, the joy that shines in the leaf, the flower, the 
face of an innocent child, and rejoicing in it as in a sacra- 
ment, we have sunk back into the complainings of our narrow 
and blinded souls. O deliver us from the bondage of un- 
chastened desires and unwholesome thoughts. Help us to 
conquer hopeless brooding and faithless reflection, and the 
impatience of irritable weakness. To this end, increase our 
faith, O Lord. Fill us with a completer trust in Thee, and 
the desire for a more whole-hearted surrender to Thy will. 
Then every sorrow will become a joy. Then shall we say 

185 



[VIII-2] THE MEANING, OF FAITH 






to the mountains that lie heavy on our souls, "Remove and 
be cast hence'' and they shall remove, and nothing shall be 
impossible unto us. Then shall we renew our strength, and 
mount up with wings as eagles; we shall run and not be 
weary; we shall walk and not faint. We offer this prayer 
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — Samuel 
McComb. 



Eighth Week, Second Day 

Not only is it true that fear imprisons while faith liberates ; 
fear paralyzes and faith empowers. The only attitude in 
which a man has command of his faculties and is at his 
best, is the attitude of faith; while fear bewilders the mind 
and paralyzes the will. The physical effects of fear are 
deadly; it positively inhibits any useful thinking; and in the 
spiritual life its results are utterly demoralizing, Fear is 
the panic of a soul. Consider such an estate as the author 
of Deuteronomy presents : 

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and 
there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah 
will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, 
and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt be- 
fore thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt 
have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou 
shalt say, Would it were even! and at even thou shalt 
say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart 
which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes 
which thou shalt see. — Deut. 28: 65-67. 

Such a situation oppresses every vital power, and the con- 
quest of such a situation must always be inward before it 
can be outward ; the man must pass from fear to faith. Let 
even a little faith arise in him, and power begins to return. 
Men fear that they cannot overcome evil habits, that they 
cannot successfully meet difficult situations, that they can- 
not hold out in the Christian life, and that great causes can- 
not be fought through to victory — and the weakness which 
appalls them is the creation of their own misgiving. 

"Our doubts are traitors, 
And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
By fearing to attempt." 
186 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-3J 

But faith is tonic; the results which follow a change of 
heart from fear to faith are miraculous ; spiritual dwarfs grow 
to giants and achieve successes that before would have been 
unbelievable. No verse in Scripture has behind it a greater 
mass of verifiable experience than : "This is the victory that 
hath overcome the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4). 

Gracious Father, Thou hast invited us, unworthy as we are, 
to pray for all sorts and conditions of men. . . . We pray 
for all who are in bondage to fear, unable to face the tasks 
of life or bear the thought of death with peace and dignity. 
Free them from the tyranny of these dark dreads. Let the 
inspiration of a great faith or hope seize their souls, and lift 
them above their fruitless worry and idle torments, into a 
regioy of joy and peace and blessedness. We pray for the 
victims of evil habits, the slaves of alcohol or morphine, or 
any other pretended redeemer of the soul from weariness and 
pain. Great is the power of these degrading temptations; 
but greater still is the saving energy of Thy Spirit. So let 
Thy Spirit enter the hearts of these unhappy children of 
Thine, that their will may be made strong to resist, and that 
the burning heat of high thoughts may consume the grosser 
Hesires of the flesh. We pray for souls bound beneath self- 
imposed burdens, vexed by miseries of their own making; 
for the children of melancholy , who have lost their way and 
grope without a light; for those who do their work with 
no enthusiasm, and, when night falls, can find no sleep though 
they search for it as for hidden treasure. Let Thy light pierce 
through their gloom and shine upon their path. . . . 

Unite us to Jesus Christ, Thy perfect Son, in the bonds of 
a living trust, so that sustained by His example, and sancti- 
fied by His Spirit, we may grow more and more into the 
image of His likeness. These, and all other blessings, we 
ask in His name and for His sake. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Eighth Week, Third Day 

There are many situations in life which naturally throw 
the pall of dread over man's soul. Life is seldom easy, it is 
often overwhelmingly difficult, and if a man has worry in 
his temperament, circumstances supply plenty of occasions 
on which to exercise it. The difference between men lies 
here : those in whom the fear-attitude is master hold the op- 

187 



[VIII-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

pressive trouble so close to the eye that it hides everything 
else ; those whom the faith-attitude dominates hold trouble 
off and see it in wide perspectives. A copper cent can hide 
the sun if we hold it close enough to the eye, and a transient 
difficulty can shut out from a fearful soul all life's large 
blessings and all the horizons of divine good will. Fear 
disheartens men by concentrating their attention on the un- 
happy aspects of life; but faith is the great encourager. 
Whittier lived in a generation full of turmoil and trouble, 
and his own life is a story of prolonged struggle against ill- 
ness, disappointments, and poverty. But, listen : 

"Yet sometimes glimpses on my sight 
Through present wrong, the eternal right ; 
And, step by step, since time began 
I see the steady gain of man." 

That is the attitude of faith; it does not deny the evil, but 
it sees around it, refuses to be obsessed or scared by it, and 
takes heart from a large view when a small view would be 
appalling. And history always confirms the large view. Fear 
may be right for the moment, but in the long run it is a liar ; 
only faith tells the truth. 

Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me 

up: 
All the day long he fighting oppresseth me. 
Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long; 
For they are many that fight proudly against me. 
What time I am afraid, 
I will put my trust in thee. 

— Psalm 56: 1-3. 

Almighty and ever-living God, we draw near unto Thee, 
believing that Thou art, and that Thou wilt reward all those 
who diligently seek Thee. We are weak, mortal men, im- 
mersed in this world's affairs, buffeted by its sorrows, Hung 
to and fro by its conflicts of right and wrong. We cry for 
some abiding stay, for some sure and steadfast anchorage. 
Reveal Thyself to us as the eternal God, as the unfathomable 
Love that encompasses every spirit Thou hast made, and 
bears it on, through the light and the darkness alike, to the 
goal of Thine own perfection. And yet, when Thou speak-* 
est to us, we are covered with confusion, for now we remem- 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-4] 

ber all the sadness and evil disorder of our lives. Thou hast 
visited our hearts with ideals fair and beautiful, but alas! 
we have grown weary in aspiration, and have declined into 
the sordid aims of our baser selves. Thou hast given us the 
love of parent and of friend, that we might thereby learn 
something of Thine own love ; yet too often have we despised 
Thy gift and shut our hearts to all the wonder and the 
glory. We make confession before Thee of our sin and 
folly and ignorance. Again and again we have vowed our- 
selves to Thy service; again and again our languid wills have 
failed to do Thy Will. We have been seduced by the sweet 
poison of sin, and even against light and knowledge we have 
done that which Thou dost abhor, and which in our secret 
hearts we loathe. And now we almost fear to repent, lest 
Thou shouldst call us into judgment for a repentance that 
must needs be repented of. O mighty Saviour of men! be 
patient with us a little longer. Take us back to Thyself. 
Without Thee, we are undone ; with Thee, we will take fresh 
heart of hope, and bind ourselves with a more effectual vow, 
and laying aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily 
beset us, we will follow Thee whithersoever Thou leadest. 
Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Eighth Week, Fourth Day 

Fear depresses vitality and is a fruitful cause of nervous 
disorders, with all their disastrous reactions on man's health. 
Modern investigation has shown beyond any reasonable doubt 
that while illness comes often by way of the body, it comes 
also by way of the mind ; our moods and tempers have a 
physical echo, and of all fatal mental states none is so ruin- 
ous as fear. It is not strange, therefore, that some people 
never are well. As Dr. McComb puts it, "Many play at liv- 
ing — they do not really live. They fear the responsibilities, 
the struggles, the adventures, not without risk, which life 
offers them. They fear illness. They fear poverty. They 
fear unhappiness. They fear danger. They fear the passion 
of sacrifice. They fear even the exaltation of a pure and 
noble love, until the settlements in money and social prestige 
have been duly certified. They fear to take a plunge into 
life's depths. They fear this world, and they fear still more 
the world beyond the grave." In such a mood no man can 



[VIII-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 






possibly be well. Faith, therefore, which drives out fear, 
has always been a minister of health. The Masters heal- 
ings, which to the rationalism of a previous generation seemed 
incredible, in the light of the present knowledge seem in- 
evitable. He had faith and he demanded faith, and wherever 
the faith-attitude can be set in motion against the fear-atti- 
tude and all its morbid brood, the consequences will be 
physical as well as moral. An outgrown custom of the early 
Church does not npw seem so strange as it did a generation 
ago: 

Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheer- 
ful? let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him 
call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 
and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and 
the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed 
sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your 
sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye 
may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man 
availeth much in its working. — James 5: 13-16. 

Eternal God, who art above all change and darkness, whose 
will begat us, and whose all present love doth enfold and 
continually redeem us, Holy Guest who indwellest, and dost 
comfort us; we have gathered to worship Thee, and in com- 
munion with Thee to find ourselves raised to the light of our 
life, and the Heaven of our desires. 

Pour upon our consciousness the sense of Thy wonderful 
nearness to us. Reveal to our weakness and distress the 
power and the grace that are more than sufficient for us. 
May we see what we are, Thy Spirit-born children linked 
by nature, love, and choice to Thy mighty being; and may 
the vision make all fears to fade, and a Divine strength to 
pulse within. 

Enable us to carry out from this place the peace and 
strength that here we gain, to take into our homes a kinder 
spirit, a new thoughtfulness; that we may brighten sadness, 
heal the sick, and make happiness to abound. May we take 
into our daily tasks and life of labor, a sense of righteous- 
ness that shall be as salt to every evil and corrupting influence. 

Because we have walked here awhile with Thee, may we 
be able to walk more patiently with man. Send us forth with 

190 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-5] 

love to the fallen, hope for the despairing, strength to impart 
to the weak and wayward; and carry on through us the 
work Thou didst commence in Thy Son our Brother Man and 
Saviour God. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

Eighth Week, Fifth Day 

Fear makes impossible any satisfying joy in life. A man 
of faith may be deeply joyful even in disastrous circum- 
stances, but a man of fear would be unhappy in heaven. 
Stevenson sings in "the saddest and the bravest song he 
ever wrote" : 

"God, if this were faith? ... 
To go on for ever and fail and go on again, 
And be mauled to the earth and arise, 
And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen 

with the eyes : 
With half of a broken hope for a pillow at night 
That somehow the right is the right, 
And the smooth shall bloom from the rough : 
Lord, if that were enough?" 

Sad this song may be, but at the heart of it is yet a fierce 
joy because faith is there. But put a man of fear in luxury 
and remove from him every visible cause of disquiet and he 
will still be miserable. The more a man considers these two 
determinant moods in life, the more he sees that somehow 
the faith-attitude must be his, if life is to be worth living. 
Without it life dries up into a Sahara; with it, he comes into 
a company of the world's glad spirits, who one way or an- 
other have felt what the Psalmist sings : 

Jehovah is my light and my salvation; 

Whom shall I fear? 

Jehovah is the strength of my life; 

Of whom shall I be afraid? 

When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh, 

Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and 

fell. 
Though a host should encamp against me, 
My heart shall not fear: 
Though war should rise against me, 
Even then will I be confident. 

191 



[VllI-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: 
That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days 

of my life, 
To behold the beauty of Jehovah, 
And to inquire in his temple. 
For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his 

pavilion : 
In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; 
He will lift me up upon a rock. 
And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies 

round about me; 
And I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; 
I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto Jehovah. 

— Psalm 27: 1-6. 

Gracious Father! We confess the painful riddle of our 
being, that, while claiming kinship with Thee, we feel far 
from Thee, 0, what means this strange bewilderment, this 
never-ending war between our worse and better thoughts? 
We are Thine by right, yet we have not given ourselves wholly 
to Thy care. Our hearts know no rest, save in Thee, yet they 
have sought it in this world's vainglory, which passeth away. 
We seek to quench our thirst at the cisterns of this earth, 
but they are broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Lead 
us to Thy well of life that springeth up eternally. Give us 
to drink of that spiritual water, of which, if any man drink, 
he shall never thirst again. We lament our want and poverty 
before Thee. Open Thou our eyes to behold the unsearch- 
able riches of Thy grace, and increase our faith that we may 
make them ours. Unite us to Thee in the bonds of will and 
love and purpose. Out of Thy fulness, which is in Christ, 
give to each one of us according to his need. Make us wise 
with His Wisdom; pure with His purity; strong with His 
strength; that we may rise into the power and glory of the 
life that is life indeed. Hear our hearts' weak and wander- 
ing cries, and when Thou hearest, forgive and bless, for His 
sake. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Eighth Week, Sixth Day 

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate 
the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, 
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon. Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your 

IQ2 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-6] 

life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet 
for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life 
more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 
Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither 
do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value 
than they? And which of you by being anxious can add 
one cubit unto the measure of his life? And why are ye 
anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the 
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 
yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these. 

But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which 
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he 
not much more clothe you/O ye of little faith? Be not 
therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What 
shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your 
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteous- 
ness; and all these things shall be added unto you. — 
Matt. 6: 24-33. 

The meaning of this passage hinges on the first "therefore." 
You cannot serve God and selfish gain at the same time, says 
Jesus ; you should choose decisively to serve God ; and there- 
fore you must not be anxious about yourself. For anxious 
fear so concentrates a man's thought on himself that he can 
serve no one else. That this is the meaning of this familiar 
passage is clear also from its conclusion. The real reason 
for conquering anxious fear is that a man may give himself 
wholeheartedly to the service of the Kingdom. That fear 
does spoil usefulness is obvious ; a man cannot be fearful 
for himself and considerate of his fellows. As Stevenson 
puts it in "Aes Triplex," "The man who has least fear for 
his own carcass has most time to consider others. That 
eminent chemist who took his walks abroad in tin shoes and 
subsisted wholly upon tepid milk had all his work cut out 
for him in considerate dealings with his own digestion. So 
soon as prudence has begun to grow up in the brain, like a 
dismal fungus, it finds its first expression in a paralysis of 
generous acts." The shame of our fearful living is that it 
circles about self, is narrowed down to mean solicitudes about 
our own comfort, and is utterly incapable of serving God 
or seeking first his Kingdom. Only faith puts folk at leisure 

193 



[VIII-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

from their small anxieties so that they can be servants of a 
worthy cause. Jesus, therefore, in this passage is not giving 
us the impossible injunction not to think about tomorrow; 
he is stating a truth of experience, that anxious fear for 
oneself which so draws in the thought that God's great causes 
are forgotten is a deadly peril in man's life. By faith thrust 
out the mean and timid solicitudes, is his injunction, that life 
may be free to put first things first. 

We come to Thee, our Father, that we may more deeply 
enter into Thy joy. Thou turnest darkness into day, and 
mourning into praise. Thou art our Fortress in temptation, 
our Shield in remorse, our Covert in calamity, our Star of 
Hope in every sorrow. O Lord, we would know Thy peace, 
deep, abiding, inexhaustible. When we seek Thy peace, our 
weariness is gone, the sense of our imperfection ceases to 
discourage us, and our tired souls forget their pain. When, 
strengthened and refreshed by Thy goodness, we return to 
the task of life, send us forth as servants of Jesus Christ 
in the service and redemption of the vuorld. Send us to the 
hearts without love, to men and women burdened with heavy 
cares, to the miserable, the sad, the broken-hearted. Send 
us to the children whose heritage has been a curse, to the 
poor who doubt Thy Providence, to the sick who crave for 
healing and cannot find it, to the fallen for whom no man 
cares. May we be ministers of Thy mercy, messengers of 
Thy helpful pity, to all who need Thee. By our sympathy, 
our prayers, our kindness, our gifts, may we make a way 
for the inflow of Thy love into needy and loveless lives. And 
so 'may we have that love which alone is the fulfilling of Thy 
law. Hasten the time when all men shall love Thee and one 
another in Thee, when all the barriers that divide us shall 
be broken down, and every heart 'shall be filled with joy and 
every tongue with melody. These gracious gifts we ask, in 
Jesus' name. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Eighth Week, Seventh Day 

Fear does not reveal its disastrous consequences to the 
full until it colors one's thoughts about the source and destiny 
of life. Folk work joyfully at a picture-puzzle so long as 
they believe that the puzzle can be put together, that it was 

194 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-7] 

meant, completed, to compose a picture, and that their labor 
is an effort made in reasonable hope. But if they begin 
to fear that they are being fooled, that the puzzle is a hoax 
and never can be pieced together anywhere by anyone, how 
swiftly that suspicion will benumb their work! So joyful 
living depends on man's conviction that this life is not a hap- 
less accident, that a good purpose binds it all together, and 
that our labor for righteousness is not expended on a futile 
task without a worthy outcome. But fear blights all such 
hope ; it whispers what one pessimist said aloud : "Life is not 
a tragedy but a farcical melodrama, which is the worst kind 
of play." That fear benumbs worthy living, kills hope, makes 
cynical disgust with life a reasonable attitude, and with its 
frost withers all man's finest aspirations. Only faith in God 
can save men from such fear. Fear or faith — there is no 
dilemma so full of consequence. Fear imprisons, faith lib- 
erates ; fear paralyzes, faith empowers ; fear disheartens, faith 
encourages ; fear sickens, faith heals ; fear makes useless, 
faith makes serviceable — and, most of all, fear puts hope- 
lessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in its God. 

Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; 

For his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 

Let Israel now say, 

That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 

Let the house of Aaron now say, 

That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 

Let them now that fear Jehovah say, 

That his lovingkindness endureth for ever. 

Out of my distress I called upon Jehovah: 

Jehovah answered me and set me in a large place. 

Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: 

What can man do unto me? 

— Psalm 118: 1-6. 

O God, we invoke Thy blessing upon all who need Thee, 
and who are groping after Thee, if haply they may find Thee. 
Be gracious to those who bear the sins of others, who are 
vexed by the wrongdoing and selfishness of those near and 
dear to them, and reveal to them the glory of their fellow- 
ship with the sufferings of Christ. Brood in tenderness over 
the hearts of the anxious, the miserable, the victims of 
phantasmal fear and morbid imaginings. Redeem from 

195 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

slavery the men and women who have yielded to degrading 
habits. Put Thy Spirit within them, that they may rise up 
in shame and sorrow and make confession to Thee, "So 
brutish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee." 
And then let them have the glad assurance that Thou art 
with them, the secret of all good, the promise and potency 
of better things. Console with Thy large consolation those 
who mourn for their loved dead, who count the empty places 
and long for the sound of a voice that is still. Inspire them 
with the firm conviction that the dead are safe in Thy keep- 
ing, nay, that they are not dead, but live unto Thee. Give 
to all sorrowing ones a garland for asl\es, the oil of joy 
for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness. Remember for good all who are perplexed with 
the mysteries of existence, and who grieve because the world 
is so sad and unintelligible. Teach them that Thy hand is on 
the helm of affairs, that Thou dost guide Thine own world, 
and canst change every dark cloud into bright sunshine. In 
this faith let them rest, and by this faith let them live. These 
blessings we ask in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 



Many people do not find their most perplexing- difficulty 
either in the realm of trust or of belief, but in a problem 
which includes both. They are confused because neither their 
experience of God nor their intellectual conviction of the rea- 
sonableness of faith is dependable and steady. Faith comes 
and goes in them with fluctuating moods that bring an appall- 
ing sense of insecurity. Their religious life is not stable and 
consistent; it runs through variant degrees of confidence and 
doubt, and its whimsical ups and downs continually baffle 
them. To classify some folk as men of faith and some as 
men of doubt does not, in the light of this experience, quite 
tally with the facts. There are moods of faith and moods 
of doubt in all of us and rarely does either kind secure unani- 
mous consent. Were we to decide for irreligion, a minority 
protest would be vigorously urged in the interests of faith, 
and when most assuredly we choose religion, the prayer, 

196 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

"Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24) is 
still appropriate. We often seem to be exchanging, as Brown- 
ing's Bishop says : . 

"A life of doubt diversified by faith, 
For one of faith diversified by doubt." 

Some hope arises when we observe that this experience 
•which so perplexes us is fully acknowledged in the Bible. 
The popular supposition is that when one opens the Scrip- 
ture he finds himself in a world of constant and triumphant 
faith. No low moods and doubts can here obscure the trust 
:.of men; here God is always real, saints sing in prison or 
'dying see their Lord enthroned in heaven. When one, how- 
ever, really knows the Bible, it obviously is no serene record 
of untroubled faith. It is turbulent with moods and doubt. 

Here, to be sure, is the fifteenth chapter of First Corin- 
thians, on Immortality, but here too is another cry, burdened 
with all the doubt man ever felt about eternal life, "That 
which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one 
thing befalleth them : as the one dieth, so dieth the other ; yea, 
they have all one breath ; and man hath no preeminence above 
the beasts" (Eccl. 3:19). The Scripture has many exultant 
passages on divine faithfulness, but Jeremiah's bitter prayer 
is not excluded : "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound 
incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou indeed 
be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?" (Jer. 
15: 18). The confident texts on prayer are often quoted, but 
there are cries of another sort : Job's complaint, "Behold, I 
go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I can- 
not perceive him" (Job 23 : 8) ; Habakkuk's bitterness, "O 
Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I cry 
unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save" (Hab. 1:2). 
The Bible is no book of tranquil faith. From the time when 
Gideon, in a mood like that of multitudes today, cried, "Oh, 
my Lord, if Jehovah is with us, why then is all this befallen 
us?" (Judges 6: 13) to the complaint of the slain saints in the 
Apocalypse, "How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost 
thou not judge and avenge our blood" (Rev. 6: 10), the Bible 
is acquainted with doubt. It knows the searching, perplexing, 
terrifying questions that in all ages vex men's souls. If the 
Psalmist, in an exultant mood, sang, "Jehovah is my shep- 

197 



'[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

herd," he also cried, "Jehovah, why casteth thou off my soul? 
Why hidest thou thy face from me?" (Psalm 88: 14). 

No aspect of the Scripture could bring it more warmly into 
touch with man's experience than this confession of fluctuat- 
ing moods. At least in this the Bible is our book. Great 
heights are there, that we know something of. Psalmists sing 
in adoration, prophets are sure of God and of his coming vic- 
tory; apostles pledge in sacrifice the certainty of their belief, 
and the Master on Transfiguration Mountain prays until his 
countenance is radiant. And depths are there, that modern 
men know well. Saints cry out against unanswered prayer 
and cannot understand how such an evil, wretched world is 
ruled by a good God; in their bitter griefs they complain that 
God has cast them off, and utterly forgotten and, dismayed, 
doubt even that a man's death differs from a dog's. This is 
our book. For the faith of many of us, however we insist 
that we are Christians, is not tranquil, steady, and serene. It 
is moody, occasional, spasmodic, with hours of great assur- 
ance, and other hours when confidence sags and trust is in- 
secure. 

II 

Faith so generally is discussed as though it were a creed, 
accepted once for all and thereafter statically held, that the 
influence of our moods on faith is not often reckoned with. 
But the moods of faith are the very pith and marrow of our 
actual experience. When a Christian congregation recite 
together their creedal affirmation, "I believe in God," it 
sounds as though they all maintained a solid, constant faith. 
But when in imagination, one breaks up the congregation and 
interprets from his knowledge of men's lives what the faith 
of the individuals actually means, he sees that they believe in 
God not evenly and constantly, but more or less, sometimes 
very much, sometimes not confidently at all. Our faith in 
God is not a static matter such as the recitation of a creed 
suggests. Some things we do believe in steadily. That two 
plus two make four, that the summed angles of a triangle 
make two right angles — of such things we are unwaveringly 
sure. No moods can shake our confidence; no griefs con- 
fuse us, no moral failures quench our certainty. Though the 
heavens fall, two and two make four ! But our faith in God 
belongs in another realm. It is a vital experience. It in- 

108 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

volves the whole man, with his chameleon moods, his glowing 
insights, his exalted hours, and his dejected days when life 
flows sluggishly and no great thing seems real. 

This experience of variable moods in faith does not belong 
especially to feeble folk, whose ups and downs in their life 
with God would illustrate their whole irresolute and flimsy 
living. The great believers sometimes know best this tidal 
rise and fall of confidence. Elijah one day, with absolute 
belief in God, defied the hosts of Baal and the next, in desolate 
reaction, wanted to die. Luther put it with his rugged candor, 
"Sometimes I believe and sometimes I doubt." John Knox, 
at liberty to preach, "dings the pulpit into blads" in his con- 
fident utterance ; but the same Knox recalled that, in the 
galleys, his soul knew "anger, wrath, and indignation which it 
conceived against God, calling all his promises in. doubt." 
The Master himself was not a stranger to this experience. He 
believed in God with unwavering assurance, as one believes 
in the shining of the sun. But the fact that the sun perpetu- 
ally shines did not imply that every day was a sunshiny day 
for him. The clouds came pouring up out of his dark hori- 
zons and hid the sun. "Now is my soul troubled; and what 
shall I say?" (John 12:27). And once the fog drove in, so 
dense and dark that one would think there never had been any 
I sun at all. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
< me?" (Matt. 27:46). 

This experience of fluctuating moods is too familiar to be 
i denied, too influential to be neglected. There can be no use 
j in hiding it from candid thought behind the recitation of a 
] creedal formula. There may be great use in searching out its 
\ meaning. For there are ways in which this common expe- 
j rience, at first vexatious and disquieting, may supply solid 
ground for Christian confidence. 

Ill 

In dealing with these variant moods of faith we are not left 

without an instrument. We have the sense of value. We 

discern not only the existence of things, but their worth as 

well. When, therefore, a man has recognized his moods as 

I facts, he has not said all that he can say about them. Upon 

no objects of experience can the sense of value be used with 

i so much certainty as upon our moods. We know our best 

' hours when they come. The lapidary, with unerring skill, 

199 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

learns to distinguish a real diamond from a false, but his 
knowledge is external and contingent, compared with the in- 
ward and authoritative certainty with which we know our 
best hours from our worst. Our great moods carry with them 
the authentic marks of their superiority. 

Experience readily confirms this truth. We all have, for 
example, cynical and sordid moods. At such times, only the 
appetites of physical life seem much to matter ; only the things 
that minister to common comfort greatly count. When Syd- 
ney Smith, the English cleric, writes, "I feel an ungovernable 
interest in my horses, my pigs, and my plants. But I am 
forced and always was forced to task myself up to an inter- ) 
est in any higher objects," most of us can understand his ! 
mood. We grow obtuse at times to all that in our better 
moods had' thrilled us most. Nature suffers in our eyes ; 
great books seem dull; causes that once we served with zest 
lose interest, and personal relationships grow pale and tame. 
From such mere dullness we easily drift down to cynicism. 
Music once had stirred the depths, but now our spirits tally 
with the scoffer's jest, "What are you crying about with your 
Wagner and your Brahms? It is only horsehair scraping on 
catgut." Man's most holy things may lose their grandeur and 
become a butt of ridicule. When the mood of Aristophanes 
is on, we too may hoist serious Socrates among the clouds, 
and set him talking moonshine while the cynical look on and 
laugh. The spirit that "sits in the seat of the scornful" is an 
ancient malady. 

But every man is thoroughly aware that these are not his 
best moods. From such depleted attitudes we come to 
worthier hours ; real life arrives again. Nature and art be- 
come imperatively beautiful; moral causes seem worth sacri- 
fice, and before man's highest life, revealed in character, ideal, 
and faith, we stand in reverence. These are our great hours, 
when spiritual values take the throne, when all else dons 
livery to serve them, and we find it easy to believe in God. 

Again, we have crushed and rebellious moods. We may 
have been Christians for many years ; yet when disaster, long 
delayed, at last descends, and our dreams are wrecked, we do 
rebel. Complaint rises hot within us. Joseph Parker, 
preacher at the City Temple, London, at the age of sixty-eight 
could write that he had never had a doubt. Neither the good- 
ness of God nor the divinity of Christ, nor anything essen- 

200 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

tial to his Christian faith had he ever questioned. But within 
a year an experience had fallen of which he wrote: "In that 
dark hour I became almost an atheist. For God had set his 
foot upon my prayers and treated my petitions with con- 
tempt. If I had seen a dog in such agony as mine, I would 
have pitied and helped the dumb beast; yet God spat upon 
me and cast me out as an offense — out into the waste wilder- 
ness and the night black and starless." No new philosophy 
had so shaken the faith of this long unquestioning believer. 
But his wife had died and he was in a heartbroken mood that 
all his arguments, so often used on others, could not pene- 
trate. He believed in God as one believes in the sun when he 
has lived six. months in the polar night and has not seen it. 

These heartbroken moods, however, are not our best. Out 
of rebellious grief we lift our eyes in time to see how other 
men have borne their sorrows off and built them into char- 
acter. We see great lives shine out from suffering, like Rem- 
brandt's radiant faces from dark backgrounds. We see that 
all the virtues which we most admire — constancy, patience, 
fortitude — are impossible without stern settings, and that in 
time of trouble they find their aptest opportunity, their 
noblest chance. We rise into a new mood, grow resolute not 
to be crushed, but, as though there were moral purpose in 
man's trials, to be hallowed, deepened, purified. The meaning 
of Samuel Rutherford's old saying dawns upon us, "When I 
am in the cellar of affliction, I reach out my hand for the 
king's wine." And folk, seeing us, it may be, take heart and 
are assured that God is real, since he can make a man bear 
off his trial like that and grow the finer for it. These are 
our great hours too, when the rains descend, and the winds 
blow, and the floods come, and beat upon our house, and it is 
founded on a rock ! 

Once more, we have hours of discouragement about the 
\world. The more we have cared for moral causes and in- 
vested life in their advancement, the more we are desolate 
when they seem to fail. Some rising tide in which we trusted 
iturns to ebb again, injustice wins its victories, the people 
listen to demagogues and not to statesmen, social causes essen- 
tial to human weal are balked, wars come and undo the hopes 
of centuries. Who does not sometimes fall into the Slough of 
pespond? Cavour, disheartened about Italy, went to his 
room to kill himself, John Knox, dismayed about Scotland, 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

in a pathetic prayer entitled, "John Knox with deliberate 
mind to his God," wrote, "Now, Lord put an end to my mis- 
ery " We generally think of Luther in that intrepid hour 
when he faced Charles V at Worms; but he had times as 
well when he was sick with disappointment. Old, decrepit 
lazy worn out, cold, and now one-eyed," so runs a letter, 1 
write my Jacob, I who hoped there might at length be granted 
to me, already dead, a well-earned rest." During the Great 
War this mood of discouragement has grown familiar. Many 
can understand what Robert Louis Stevenson meant when he 
wrote, of the Franco-Prussian war, "In that year cannon 
were roaring for days together on French battlefields and I 
would sit in my isle (I call it mine after the use of lovers) 
and think upon the war, and the pain of men's wounds, and 
the weariness of their marching ... It was something so 
distressing, so instant, that I lay in the heather on the top of 
the island, with my face hid, kicking my heels for agony. 

But these dismayed hours are not our best. As Bunyan 
put it, even Giant Despair has fainting fits on sunshiny days, 
in moods of clearer insight we perceive out of how many 
Egypts, through how many round-about wilderness journeys, 
God has led his people to how many Promised Lands. The 
Exodus was not a failure, although the Hebrews, disheartened, 
thought it was and even Moses had his dubious hours; the 
mission of Israel did not come to an ignoble end in the Exlle > 
although multitudes gave up their faith because of it and only 
prophets dared believe the hopeful truth. The crucifixion did 
not mean the Gospel's end, as the disciples thought, nor did 
Paul, imprisoned, lose his ministry. Nothing in history is 
more assured than this, that only men of faith have known 
t\e truth. And in hours of vision when this fact shines clear 
we rise to be our better selves again. What a clear ascent 
the race has made when wide horizons are taken into view! 
What endless possibilities must lie ahead! What ample rea- 
sons we possess to thrust despair aside, and to go out to play 
our part in the forward movement of the plan of God! 
"Dreamer of dreams? we take the taunt with gladness, 
Knowing that God beyond the years you see, 
Has wrought the dreams that count with you for madness 
Into the texture of the world to be." 

These are our better hours. 

202 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIlI-c] 



IV 



Such sordid, cynical, crushed, rebellious, and discouraged 
moods we suffer, but we have hours of insight, too, when we 
are at our best. And as we face this ebb and flow of con- 
fidence, which at the first vexatiously perplexed our faith, 
an arresting truth is clear. The creed of irreligion, to which 
men are tempted to resign their minds, is simply the intel- 
lectual formulation of what is implied in our less noble hours. 
Take what man's cynical, sordid, crushed, rebellious, and dis- 
couraged moods imply, and set it in a formal statement of 
life's meaning, and the result is the creed of irreligion. But 
take man's best hours, when the highest seems the realest, 
when even sorrows cannot crush his soul, and when the world 
is still the battlefield of God for men, and formulate what 
these hours imply, and the result is the central affirmations 
of religious iaith. Even Renan is sure that "man is most 
religious in his best moments.'' Of this high interpretation 
our variant moods are susceptible, that we know our best 
hours when they come, and the faith implied in them is essen- 
tial Christianity. As Browning sings it: 

"Faith is my waking life : 
One sleeps, indeed, and dreams at intervals, 
We know, but waking's the main point with us." 

This fact which we so have come upon is a powerful con- 
sideration in favor of religion's truth. Are we to trust for 
our guidance the testimony of our worse or better hours? 
We have low moods ; so, too, we have cellars in our houses. 
But we do not live there ; we live upstairs ! It is not unnatural 
to have irreligious moods. There may be hours when the 
: eternal Energy from which this universe has come seems to be 
j playing solitaire for fun. It shuffles the stars and planets to 
, see what may chance from their combinations, and careless 
of the consequence, from everlasting to everlasting it shuffles 
I and plays, and shuffles and plays again. But these are not our 
best hours. We may have moods when the universe seems to 
1 us, as Carlyle's figure pictures it, "as if the heavens and the 
earth were but boundless jaws of a devouring monster, 
j wherein, I, palpitating, lay waiting to be devoured," but we 
J are inwardly ashamed of times like that. Man comes to this r 
j brutal universe of irreligion by way of his ignoble moods. 

203 



w.~ 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

-When he lifts up his soul in his great hours of love, of 
St and of devotion, life never looks to him as irreh- 
gion pictures it; it never has so looked to him and it never 

W In his best hours man always suspects that the Eternal must 
be akin to what is best in us, that our ideals are born from 
above have there their source and dest.ny, that the Eternal 
Purpose reigns and yet shall justify the struggle of the ages 
and that in anyone who is the best we know, we see most 
dear y what the Eternal is and means. That goodness is 
deeper *an evil, that spirit is more than flesh that life is 
ford of death, that love is the source of all-such convictions 
come natural y to us when we are at our best. When one 
Sines such affirmations, he perceives that Christianity 
in its essential faiths is the expression of our finest hours. 
This is the source whence Christianity has come; it is man s 
best become articulate. Some used to say ^t Christian faith 
had been foisted on mankind by priests Christen faith has 
no more artificially been foisted upon human life than the 
full blown rose is foisted on the bud. Christianity springs 
up out of man's best life; it is the utterance of his tran- 
scendent moods; it is man believing m the validity of his 
own noblest days. ' ... T 

Christianity, therefore, at its heart can never fail Its 
theologies may come and go, its institutions rise and fall, its 
rituals have their dawn, their zenith, and their decline but one 
persistent force goes on and will go on. The Gospel is say- 
ing to man what man at his best is saying to himself. Umsc 
has a tremendous ally in human life-our noblest hours. 
They are all upon his side. What he says, they rise to cry 
"Amen" to When we are most truly ourselves we are near- 
est to him. Antagonistic philosophies, therefore, may spring 
up to assail the Gospel's influence, and seem to triumph and 
fall at last and be forgotten. Still Christ will go on speaking. 
Nothing can tear him from his spiritual influence over men. 
In every generation he has man's noblest hours for his ally. 

V 

In the fact to which our study of man's variant moods has 
brought us we have not only a confirming consideration in 
favor of religion's truth, but an explanation of some people s 



204 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

unbelief. They live habitually in their low moods; they 
inhabit spiritual cellars. We are accustomed to say that some 
friend would be saved from his ignoble attitudes by a vital 
religious faith ; but it is also true that his persistent clinging 
to ignoble attitudes may be the factor that makes religious 
faith impossible. According to Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities" 
a prisoner in the Bastille, who had lived in a cell and cobbled 
shoes for many years, became so enamored of the narrow 
walls, the darkness, the task's monotony, that, when liberated, 
he built a cell at the center of his English home, and on days 
when the skies were clear and birds were singing, the tap of 
his cobbler's hammer in the dark could still be heard. So 
men, by an habitual residence in imprisoning moods, render 
themselves incapable of loving the wide horizons, the great 
faiths and hopes of religion. They do not merely make ex- 
cursions of transient emotion into morose hours and, like men 
that find that the road is running into malarial swamps, turn 
swiftly to the hills. They dwell in their moroseness ; they 
choose it, and often obstinately resist deliverance. 

The common moods that thus incapacitate the soul for faith 
are easily seen in any man's experience. There are sullen 
tempers when we are churlish and want so to be. There are 
stupid tempers, when our soul is too negligent to care, too dull 
to ask for what only aspiring minds can crave or find. There 
are bored moods when we feel about all life what Malachi's 
people felt about worship, "Behold, what a weariness is it !" 
(Mai. 1 : 13) ; rebellious moods when, like Jonah, deprived of 
a comfort he desired, we cry, "I do well to be angry, even 
unto death" (Jonah 4:9); suspicious moods, when we mis- 
trust everyone, and even of some righteous Job hear Satan's 
insinuating sneer, "Does Job fear God for nought?" (Job 
1 : 9). No man is altogether strange to frivolous hours, when 
those thoughts are lost which must be handled seriously if at 
all, and wilful hours, when some private desire assumes the 
center of the stage and. angrily resents another voice than 
his. To say that one who habitually harbors such moods 
cannot know God is only a portion of the truth; such a man 
cannotknow. anything worth knowing. He can know neither 
fine friends nor great bodks ; he cannot appreciate beautiful 
music or sublime scenery; he is lost to the deepest loves of 
family and to every noble enthusiasm for human help. 
Athwart the knowledge of these most gracious and necessary 
- 205 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

things stand our obtuse, ignoble moods. The sullen stupid, 
bored, rebellious, suspicious, frivolous, or wilful tempers 
made into a spiritual residence, are the most deadly prison of 
The soul Of course one who dwells there has no confidence 
in God Lord Shaftesbury, the English philanthropist, made 
loo sweeping a statement about this, but one can see the basis 
for his judgment : "Nothing beside ill-humor, either natu»l or 
forced, can bring a man to think seriously that the world is 
governed by any devilish or malicious power. I very much 
question whether anything beside ill-humor can be the cause 
of atheism." At least one may be sure that where 1 1-humor 
habitually reigns, vital faith in God is made impossible. 

After full acknowledgment, therefore, of the momentous 
intellectual problems of belief, we must add that there is a 
moral qualification for faith in God. So g rea * a ^f^ ™ 
achieved by any sort of person, with any kind of habitual 
moods and tempers. There are views which cellar windows 
do not afford; one must have balconies to see them. When 
Tesus said that the pure in heart are blessed because they 
see God, he was not thinking merely, perhaps not chiefly, of 
sexual impurity as hindering vision. He was pleading tor 
a heart cleansed of all such perverse, morose, and wayward 
moods as shut the blinds on the soul's windows He knew 
that men could not easily escape the sense of Gods reality it 
they kept their vision clear. On elevated days we naturally 
think of Spirit as real, and see ourselves as expressions ot 
spiritual purpose, our lives as servants of a spiritual cause. 
When one habitually dwells in these finer moods, he cannot 
tolerate a world where his Best is a transient accident. He 
must have God, for faith in God is the supreme assertion of 
the reality and eternity of man's Best. Any man who habit- 
ually lives in his finest moods will not easily escape the pene- 
trating sense of God's reality. 

VI 

The certainty with, which we tend to be most deeply reli- j 
gious in our best hours is clear when we consider that a man 
does practically believe in the things which he counts^of high- 
est worth. Lotze, the philosopher, even says that "Faith is 
the feeling that is appreciative of value." It is conceivable 
that one might be so constituted that without any sense ot 

206 






FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

value he could study facts, as a deaf man might observe a 
symphony. The sound-waves such a man could mechanically 
measure; he could analyze the motions of the players and 
note the reactions of the crowd, but he would hear no music. 
He would not suffuse the whole performance with his musical 
appreciations ; he would neither like it nor condemn. Man 
might be so constituted as to face faces without feeling, but 
he is not. Facts never stand in our experience thus barren 
and unappreciated — mere neutral things that mean nothing 
and have no value. The botanist in us may analyze the 
flowers, but the poet in us estimates them. The penologist in 
us may take the Bertillon measurements of a boy, but the 
father in us best can tell how much, in spite of all his sin, 
that boy is worth. This power to estimate life's values is the 
fountain from which spring our music, painting, and liter- 
ature, our ideals and loves and purposes, our morals and reli- 
gion. Without it no man can live in the real world at all. 

If we would know, therefore, in what, at our highest alti- 
tudes, w6 tend to believe, we should ask what it is that we 
value most, when we rise toward our best. In our lowest 
hours what sordid, mercenary, beastly things men may prize 
each heart knows well. But ever as we approach our best 
the things that are worth most to us become elevated and 
refined. Our better moods open our eyes to a world where 
character is of more worth than all the rest beside, and 
through which moral purpose runs, to be served with sacri- 
fice. We become aware of spiritual values in behalf of which 
at need physical existence must be willingly laid down; and 
words like honor, love, fidelity, and service in our hours of 
insight have halos over them that poorer moods cannot dis- 
cern. Man at his best, that is to say, believes in an invisible 
world of spiritual values, and he furnishes the final proof of 
his faith's reality by sacrificing to it all lesser things. The 
good, the true, the beautiful command him in his finer hours, 
and at their beck and call he lays down wealth and ease and 
earthly hopes to be their servant. Men really do believe in 
the things for which they sacrifice and die. 

In no more searching way can a man's faith be described 
than in terms of the objects which thus he values most. 
Wherever men find some consuming aim that is for them so 
supreme in worth that they sacrifice all else to win it, we 
speak of their attitude as a religion. The "religion of science" 

207 



[VIII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

describes the absolute devotion of investigators to scientific 
research as the highest good; the "religion of art" describes 
the consuming passion with which some value beauty. When 
we say of one that "money is his God" we mean that he esti- 
mates it as life's highest treasure, and when with Paul we 
speak of others, "whose god is the belly" (Phil. 3:19), we 
mean men whose sensual life is to them the thing worth most. 
What men believe in, therefore, is most deeply seen not by 
any opinions which they profess, but by the things they prize. 
Faith, as Ruskin said, is "that by which men act while they 
live; not that which they talk of when they die." Many a 
man uses pious affirmations of Christian faith, but it is easy 
to observe from his life that what he really believes in is 
money. Where a man's treasure is, as Jesus said, his heart is, 
and there his faith is, too. 

Is there any doubt, then, what we most believe in when we 
are at our best? While in our lower altitudes it may be easy 
to believe that the physical is the ultimately real, in our upper 
altitudes we so value the spiritual world, that we tend with 
undeniable conviction to feel sure that it must be causal and 
eternal. Materialism is man's "night-view" of his life; but the 
"day-view" is religion. Tyndall the scientist was regarded by 
the Christians of his generation as the enemy of almost every- 
thing that they held dear. Let him, then, be witness for the 
truth which we have stated. "I have noticed," he said, speak- 
ing of materialism,* "during years of self-observation, that it 
is not in hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine com- 
mends itself to my mind." 

The challenge, therefore, presented to every one of us by 
Christian faith is ultimately this : Shall I believe the testi- 
mony of my better hours or of my worse? Many who deny 
the central affirmations of the Gospel put the object of their 
denial far away from them as though it were an external 
thing; they say that. they deny the creed or the Bible or the 
doctrine about God. Such a description of a man's rejection 
of religious faith is utterly inadequate — the real object of his 
denial is inward. One may, indeed, discredit forms of doc- 
trine and either be unsure about or altogether disbelieve many 
things that Christians hold, but when one makes a clean 
sweep of religion and banishes the central faiths of Chris- 
tianity he is denying the testimony of his own finest days. 
From such rejection of faith one need not appeal to creed nor 

208 



FAITH AND MOODS [VIII-c] 

Bible, nor to anything that anybody ever said. Let the chal- 
lenge strike inward to the man's own heart. From his denial 
of religious faith we may appeal to the hours that he has 
known and yet will know again, when the road rose under his 
feet and from a height he looked on wide horizons and knew 
that he was at his best. To those hours of clear insight, of 
keen thought, of love and great devotion, when he knew 
that the spiritual is the real and the eternal, we may appeal. 
They were his best. He knows that they were his best. And 
as long as humanity lives upon the earth this conviction must 
underlie great living — that we will not deny the validity of 
our own best hours. 



209 



CHAPTER IX 

Faith in the Earnest God 

DAILY READINGS 

Throughout our studies we have been thinking of the effect 
of faith on the one who exercises it. As an introduction to 
this week's thought on the earnestness of God, let us ap- 
proach the effect of faith from another angle. Faith has 
enormous influence on the one in whom it is reposed ; not only 
the believer but the one in whom he believes is affected 
hy his faith. 

Ninth Week, First Day 

I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant 
of the church that is at Cenchreae: that ye receive her m 
the Lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her m 
whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she 
herself also hath been a helper of many, and of mine own 

Salute Prisca and Aquila my fellow-workers in Christ 
Jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; unto 
whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches 
of the Gentiles: and salute the church that is in their 
house. Salute Epaenetus my beloved, who is the first- 
fruits of Asia unto Christ. Salute Mary, who bestowed 
much labor on you. Salute Andronicus and Junias, my 
kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among 
the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me. 
Salute Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord.— Rom. 16: 1-8. 

This series of personal commendations is only the begin- 
ning of the last chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. All 
the way through one hears the individual names of Paul's 
friends and fellow-laborers, with his discriminating and hearty 
praise of each. It is clear that he has faith in these men 

210 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-2] 

and women ; he believes in them and relies on them. Con- 
sider the effect on them that Paul's confidence in their Chris- 
tian fidelity would naturally have. There is no motive much 
more stirring than the consciousness that somebody believes 
in us, is trusting and counting on us. Whatever is fine and 
noble in human life responds to that appeal. Soldiers who 
feel that their country is relying upon their fidelity, children 
who are conscious that their parents believe in them, friends 
who are heartened by the assurance that some folk com- 
pletely trust them — how much of the best in all of us has come 
because we have been the objects of somebody's faith! A 
Connecticut volunteer in the American Revolution has writ- 
ten that George Washington once paused for a moment in 
front of his company and said simply, "I am counting on 
you men from Connecticut." And the recruit clasped his 
musket in his arms and wept with the devotion which Wash- 
ington's confidence evoked. Would not the sixteenth chapter 
of Romans have a similar effect on those who read it? 

O Thou loving and tender Father in heaven, we confess 
before Thee, in sorrow, how hard and unsympathetic are our 
hearts; how often we have sinned against our neighbors 
by want of compassion and tenderness; how often we have 
felt no true pity for their trials and sorrows, and have 
neglected to comfort, help, and visit them. O Father, forgive 
this our sin, and lay it not to our charge. Give us grace ever 
to alleviate the crosses and difficulties of those around us, 
and never to add to them; teach us to be consolers in sorrow, 
to take thought for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan; 
let our charity show itself not in words only, but in deed and 
truth. Teach us to judge as Thou dost, with forbearance, 
with much pity and indulgence ; and help us to avoid all un- 
loving judgment of others; for the sake of Jesus Christ Thy 
Son, Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen. — 
Johann Arndt, 1555. 

Ninth Week, Second Day 

And it came to pass in these days, that he went out 
into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in 
prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his 
disciples; and he chose from them twelve, whom also 
he named apostles: Simon, whom he also named Peter, 

211 



[IX 2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

came a traitor.— Luke 6: 12-16. 

The power that comes to men when someone believes in 
them mus? have come to these disciples whom Jesus trusted 
whh Ms work We often note the power that was theirs 
Tu\TZZ faith in Christ; consider today the inspiration 
if Christ' T faith in them. He picked them out, 
commSoned them, relied on them, and believed in their 
abSSrwS God's help to carry his work to a successful issue 
All Lris most distinctive and memorable in their character 
fame from tLir response to that divine trust How they 
mTst have encouraged themselves in times of failure and 
SeartenJnt by faying: He believes in us; even hough 
we are ignorant and sinful, he believes in us.; he has trusted 
his work to us, and for all our inability he has fa.th .that 
ve Tan carry i to triumph! Their faith in themselves and 
what diey could do with God's help must have been almost 
^together a reflex of his faith in them Our contention, 
tterefore that faith is the dynamic of life has now a new 
confirmation: the faith that lifts and motives life is not smply 
TurfaUhTnthe Divine, but the faith of the Divine m g. 
One of the most glorious results of believing mGod»to 
a man can press on to the further confidence that God be 
HevTs in us If he did not, he would never have made us 
The very fact that we are here means that he does believe 
in us, in our possibilities of growth, in our capacities of serv- 
ce n what he can do in and for and through us before he 
s done. Man's faith in God and God's faith in man tog the 
make an unequalled motive for great living. Yet there is 
dways a sad appendix to every list of trusted men, with 
somebody's blighted name: "Judas Iscariot, who became a 
traitor." 

Lovino Father, our hearts are moved to gratitude and 
trust Sen we look up to Thee. We rejoice that througl lour 
Aeetina days there runs Thy gracious purpose. We praise 
jtethatwe are not the creatures of chance, nor the victims 
of iron fate, but that out from Thee we have come and in to 
Thy losom we shall return. We would not, even if we could, 

212 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-3] 

escape Thee. Thou alone art good, and to escape from Thee 
is to fall into infinite evil. Thy hand is upon us moving us 
on to some far-off spiritual event, where the meaning and the 
mystery of life shall be made plain and Thy glory shall be 
revealed. Look in pity upon our ignorance and childishness. 
Forgive us our small understanding of Thy purpose of good 
concerning us. Be not angry with us, but draw us from the 
things of this world which cannot satisfy our foolish hearts. 
Fill us with Thyself, that we may no longer be a burden to 
ourselves. So glorify the face of goodness that evil shall 
have no more dominion over us. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Ninth Week, Third Day 

The fact that God has faith in us is not alone a source of 
comfort ; it presents a stirring challenge. It means that he 
is in earnest about achieving his great purposes in human life 
and that he is counting upon us to help. He has set his heart 
on aims, about which he cares, and to whose achievement 

I he is calling us ; he is confident that with him we can work 
out, if we will, loftier character and a better world. Let us 

1 consider some of the purposes which God is counting on us, 
in fellowship with him, to achieve. The prophet Micah, in 
a brief but perfect drama, gives one clue. First the Lord 
summons his people to a trial, with the eternal mountains 

• for judges : 

Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou 
before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 
Hear, O ye mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye 
enduring foundations of the earth; for Jehovah hath a 
controversy with his people, and he will contend with 
Israel. — Micah 6: 1, 2. 

Then, the Lord presents his case : 

O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein 
have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought 

1 thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out 
of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, 
Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what 
Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son 
of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto 

I Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah. 

1 — Micah 6: 3-5. # 

213 



[IX-3] x THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Then the people put in their hesitant, questioning plea. 

Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow 
myself before the high God? shall I come before him with 
burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? will Jehovah be 
pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands 
of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my trans- 
gression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?— 
Micah 6: 6, 7. 

Then the mountains pronounce judgment: 

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what 
doth Tehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God? — Micah 
6: 8. 

God, then, is in earnest about just, kind, and humble charac- 
ter. He believes in it as a possibility; he sees the making 
of it now in human hearts; he is pledged to further and 
establish it with all his power ; and he is counting on us for 
loyal cooperation with all our powers of choice. Vital faith 
means a transforming partnership with a God who is in ear- 
nest about character. 

O Thou Who art the Father of that Son which hast awak- 
ened us and yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and 
exhorteth us that we become Thine, to Thee, Lord, we pray, 
Who art the supreme Truth, for all truth that is, is from 
Thee. Thee we implore, O Lord, Who art the highest Wis- 
dom, through Thee are wise, all those that are so. Thou art 
the supreme Joy, and from Thee all have become happy that 
are so. Thou art the highest Good and from Thee all beauty 
springs. Thou art the intellectual Light, and from Thee man 
derives his understanding. To Thee, O God, we call and 
speak. Hear us, O Lord, for Thou art our God and our 
Lord, our Father and our Creator, our Ruler and our Hope, 
our Wealth and our Honor, our Home, our Country, our 
Salvation, and our Life; hear, hear us, O Lord. Few of 
Thy servants comprehend Thee, but at least we love Thee— 
yea, love Thee above all other things. We seek Thee, we 
follow Thee, we are ready to serve Thee; under Thy power 
we desire to abide, for Thou art the Sovereign of all. We 
pray Thee to command us as Thou wilt; through Jesus Christ 
Thy Son our Lord. Amen.— Kin^ Alfred, 849. 

214 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-4] 

Ninth Week, Fourth Day 

God also is in earnest about social righteousness. 

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight 
in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your 
burnt-offerings and meal-offerings, I will not accept them; 
neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I 
will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let justice 
roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. 
— Amos 5: 21-24. 

Anyone who cares about character must care about social 
conditions, for every unfair economic situation, every social 
evil left to run its course means ruin to character. And the 
God of the Bible, because he cares supremely for personal 
life at its best, is zealously in earnest about social justice; 
his prophets blazed with indignation at ail inequity, and his 
Son made the coming Kingdom, when God's will would be 
done on earth, the center of his message. To fellowship 
with this earnest purpose of God we all are summoned ; God 
believes in the glorious possibilities of life on earth; he is 
counting on us to put away the sins that hold the Kingdom 
back and to fight the abuses that crush character in men. To 
believe in God, therefore — the God who is fighting his way 
with his children up through ignorance, brutality, and selfish- 
ness to "new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness" — is no weakly comfortable blessing. It means join- 
ing a moral war ; it means devotion, sacrifice ; its spirit is 
the Cross and its motive an undiscourageable faith. And our 
underlying assurance that this war for a better world can 
be won is not simply our belief that it can be done, but our 
faith that God is, and that he believes that it can be done. 
When we pray we say, "Thy Kingdom come," and we are 
full of hope about the long, sacrificial struggle, for the pur- 
pose behind and through it all is first of all God's. Our 
earnestness is but an echo of his. 

O Thou Eternal One, we adore Thee who in all ages hast 
been the great companion and teacher of mankind; for Thou 
hast lifted our race from the depths, and hast made us to 
share in Thy conscious intelligence and Thy will that makes 

215 



[IX-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

for righteousness and love. Thou alone art our Redeemer, 
for Thy lifting arms were about us and Thy persistent voice 
was in our hearts as we slowly climbed up from savage 
darkness and cruelty. Thou knowest how often we have 
resisted Thee and loved the easy ways of sin rather than the 
toilsome gain of self-control and the divine irritation of Thy 
truth. . . . 

We pray Thee for those who amid all the knowledge of our 
day are still without knowledge ; for those who hear not the 
sighs of the children that toil, nor the sobs of such as are 
wounded because others have made haste to be rich; for those 
who have never felt the hot tears of the mothers of the poor 
that struggle vainly against poverty and vice. Arouse them, 
we beseech Thee, from their selfish comfort and grant them 
the grace of social repentance. Smite us all with the con- 
viction that for us ignorance is sin, and that we are indeed 
our brother's keeper if our own hand has helped to lay him 
low. Though increase of knowledge bring increase of sorrow, 
may we turn without flinching to the light and offer ourselves 
as instruments of Thy spirit in bringing order and beauty 
out of disorder and darkness. Amen. — Walter Rauschenbusch. 

Ninth Week, Fifth Day 

The thought which we have been pursuing leads us to a 
truth of major importance: if God is thus in earnest, believ- 
ing in man's possibilities and laboring for them, then he can- 
not be known by anyone who does not share his purpose and 
his labor. Action is a road to knowledge and some things 
never can be known without it. If one would know the 
business world, he must .be an active business man ; no amount 
of abstract study and speculation can take the place of vital 
participation in business struggle. The way to understand any 
movement or enterprise is to go into it, share its enthusiasms 
and hopes, labor sacrificially for its success, bear its defeats 
as though they were our own, and rejoice in its achieve- 
ments as though nothing so much mattered to our happiness. 
Such knowledge is thorough and vital; when one who so 
has learned what war is, or the missionary enterprise, or the 
fight against the liquor traffic, stands up to speak, a merely 
theoretical student of these movements sounds unreal and 
tame. If therefore God is earnest Purpose, with aims in 

216 






FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-5] 

which he calls us to share, no one can thoroughly know him 
merely by thinking; he must know him by acting. 

But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that 
his works may be made manifest, that they have been 
wrought in God. — John 3: 21. 

Jesus therefore answered them, and said, My teaching 
is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man willeth to 
do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is 
of God, or whether I speak from myself. — John 7; 16, 17. 

Many people endeavor to reach a satisfactory knowledge 
of God by clarifying their thought and working out a rational 
philosophy. But, by such intellectual means alone, they could 
not gain satisfactory knowledge of so familiar a thing as 
home life. To know home life one elemental act is essential : 
get into a home and share its problems, its satisfactions, and 
its hopes. So the most adequate philosophy by itself can 
bring no satisfactory knowledge of God; only by working 
with God, sharing his purposes for the world, sacrificially 
laboring for the aims he has at heart can men know him. 

Eternal God, who hast formed us, and designed us for 
companionship with Thee; who hast called us to walk with 
Thee and be not afraid; forgive us, we pray Thee, if craven 
fear, unworthy thought, or hidden sin has prompted us to 
hide from Thee. Remove the suspicion which regards Thy 
service as an intrusion on our time and an interference with 
our daily task. Shew to us the life that serves Thee in the 
quiet discharge of each day's duty, that ennobles all our toil 
by doing it as unto Thee. We ask for no far-off vision which 
shall set us dreaming while opportunities around slip by; for 
no enchantment which shall make our hands to slack and 
our spirits to sleep, but for the vision of Thyself in common 
things for every day; that we may find a Divine calling in the 
claims of life, and see a heavenly reward in work well done. 
We ask Thee not to lift us out of life, but to prove Thy power 
within it; not for tasks more suited to our strength, but for 
strength more suited to our tasks. Give to us the vision that 
moves, the strength that endures, the grace of Jesus Christ, 
who wore our -flesh like a monarch's robe and walked our 
earthly life like a conqueror in triumph. Amen. — W. E. 
Orchard. 

217 



'[IX-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Ninth Week, Sixth Day 

Because action with God is essential to any satisfying 
knowledge of him, action is one of the great resolvers of 
doubt. Many minds, endeavoring to think through the mysti- 
fying problems of God's providence, find themselves in a 
clueless labyrinth. The more they think the more entangled 
and confused their minds become. Their thoughts strike a 
fatal circle, like wanderers lost in the woods, and return upon 
their course, baffled and disheartened. To such perplexed 
minds the best advice often is: Cease your futile thinking 
and go to work. Let action take the place of speculation. 
Break the fatal round of circular thought that never will 
arrive, and go out to act on the basis of what little you 
do believe. Your mind like a dammed stream is growing 
stagnant; set it running to some useful purpose, if only to 
turn mill-wheels, and trust that activity will bring it cleans- 
ing in due time. Horace Bushnell, the great preacher, while 
a skeptical tutor at Yale, was disturbed because so many 
students were unsettled by his disbelief. In the midst of a 
revival he said that like a great snag he caught and stopped 
the newly launched boats as fast as they came down. Unable 
to think his way out of his intellectual perplexity, he faced 
one night this arresting question: "What is the use of my 
trying to get further knowledge, so long as I do not cheer- 
fully yield to what I already know ?" And kneeling he prayed 
after this fashion: "O God, I believe there is an eternal 
difference between right and wrong, and I hereby give my- 
self up to do the right and to refrain from the wrong. I 
believe that Thou dost exist, and if Thou canst hear my cry 
and wilt reveal Thyself to me, I pledge myself to do Thy 
will, and I make this pledge fully, freely, and forever." 
What wonder that in time the light broke and that Bushnell 
became a great prophet of the faith! 

Even Paul, finishing his laborious discussion of God's 
providence toward Israel, acknowledges his baffled thought: 

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, 
and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known 
the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed 

218 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-7} 

unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto 
him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. 
—Rom. 11: 33-36. 

And then, as if he turned from philosophy to action with 
gratitude, he begins the twelfth chapter: 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- 
ceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And 
be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove 
what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 
— Rom. 12: 1, 2. 

O God, we thank Thee for the sweet refreshment of sleep 
and for the glory and vigor of the new day. As we set our 
faces once more toward our daily work, zve pray Thee for 
the strength sufficient for our tasks. May Christ's spirit of 
duty and service ennoble all we do. Uphold us by the con- 
sciousness that our work is useful work and a blessing to alL 
If there has been anything in our work harmful to others 
and dishonorable to ourselves, reveal it to our inner eye with 
such clearness that we shall hate it and put it away, though 
it be at a loss to ourselves. When we work with others, help 
us to regard them, not as servants to our will, but as brothers 
equal to us in human dignity, and equally -worthy of their 
fuU reward. May there be nothing in this day's work of 
which we shall be ashamed when the sun has set, nor in the 
eventide of our life when our task is done and we go to our 
long home to meet Thy face. Amen.— Walter Rauschen- 
busch. 

Ninth Week, Seventh Day 

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world: for I 
was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye 
gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took' me in; 
naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited 
me; I was in prison, and yc came unto me. Then shall 
the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee 
hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? 
And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or 
naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, 

219 



[IX-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall 
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inas- 
much as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even 
these least, ye did it unto me. — Matt. 25: 34-40. 

The earnestness of God is not about any diffuse generality; 
it is about persons. His purposes concern them, and he be- 
lieves in them and in their capacities for fellowship with 
him, for growing character and for glorious destiny. If, 
therefore, one wishes the sense of God's reality which comes 
from active co-partnership, let him serve persons, believe in 
them, and be in earnest about them. A woman, troubled by 
invincible doubts, was given by a wise minister the Gospel 
of John and a calling-list of needy families, and was told to 
use them both. She came through into a luminous faith, and 
which helped her more, her reading or her service, she could 
never tell. When the Master said that the good we did to 
the least of his brethren, we did to him, he indicated a road 
to vital knowledge of him; he said in effect that we can al- 
ways find him in the lives of people to whom we give love 
and help. Many will never find him at all unless they find 
him there. The great believers have been the great servants ; 
and the reason for this is not simply that faith produced 
service, but also that service produced faith. The life of Sir 
Wilfred Grenfell, for example, makes convincingly plain that 
his faith sent him to Labrador for service, and that then he 
drew out of service a compound interest on his original in- 
vestment of faith. 

O God, the Father of the forsaken, the Help of the weak, 
the Supplier of the needy, Who hast diffused and proportioned 
Thy gifts to body and soul, in such sort that all may acknowl- 
edge and perform the joyous duty of mutual service; Who 
t cache st us that love towards the race of men is the bond 
of perfectness, and the imitation of Thy blessed Self; open 
our eyes and touch our hearts, that we may see and do, both 
for this world and for that which is to come, the things 
which belong to our peace. Strengthen us in the work we 
have undertaken; give us counsel and wisdom, perseverance, 
faith, and seal, and in Thine own good time, and according 
to Thy pleasure, prosper the issue. Pour into us a spirit of 
humility ; let nothing be done but in devout obedience to Thy 

220 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

will, thankfulness for Thine unspeakable mercies, and love 
to Thine adorable Son Christ Jesus. . . . Amen, — Earl of 
Shaftesbury, 1801. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 

I 

Throughout our studies we have been asserting that faith in 
God involves confidence that creation has a purpose. But we 
shall not see the breadth and depth of the affirmation, or its 
significant meaning for our lives, unless more carefully we 
face a question, which, as keenly as any other, pierces to the 
marrow of religion: Is God in earnest? 

That the God of the Bible is in earnest is plain. If we open 
the Book at the Exodus, we hear him saying, "I have surely 
seen the affliction of my people, . . . and have heard their 
cry, . . . and I am come down to deliver them" (Exodus 
3 : 7, 8). If we turn to the prophets, we find Hosea, interpret- 
ing the beating of God's heart: "How am I to give thee up, O 
Ephraim? How am I to let thee go, O Israel? How am I 
to give thee up? My heart is turned upon me, my compas- 
sions begin to boil" 1 (Hos. 11:8). Everywhere in the Old 
Testament, God is in earnest: about personal character — 
"What doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 
6:8); about social righteousness — "Let justice roll down as 
waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24) ; 
about the salvation of the world — "It is too light a thing that 
thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob 
and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will also give thee 
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation 
unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 49:6). When from the Old 
Testament one turns to the New, he faces an assertion of 
God's earnestness that cannot be surpassed : "God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son." God in the New 

j Testament is as much in earnest as that, and all the major 
affirmations of the Book cluster about the magnetism of this 
central faith. God is even like a shepherd with a hundred 

j sheep, who having lost one, leaves the ninety and nine and 
goes after that which is lost, until he finds it (Luke 15:4). 

1 George Adam Smith's Translation. 

221 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

From the earliest Hebrew seer dimly perceiving him, to the 
last apostle of the New Covenant, the God of the Bible is tre- 
mendously in earnest. 

How profoundly the acceptance of this faith deepens the 
meaning and value of life is evident. For a moment some 
might think that the major question is not whether God is in 
earnest but whether we are ; but when a man considers the 
hidden fountains from which the streams of his human 
earnestness must flow, he sees how necessary is at least the 
hope that at the heart of it creation is in earnest too. Von 
Hartmann, the pessimist, makes one of his characters say, 
"The activities of the busy world are only the shudderings of 
a fever." How shall a man be seriously in earnest about 
great causes in a world like that ? The men whose devoted 
lives have made history great have seen in creation's busyness 
more than aimless shuddering. Moses was in earnest, but 
behind his consecration was his vision of the Eternal, saying 
to Pharaoh, "Let my people go I" The Master was in earnest, 
but with a motive that took into its account the purposefulness 
of God, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 

5:i7). 

Indeed, no satisfying meaning, no real unity are conceivable 
in a purposeless universe. The plain fact is that within the 
universe nobody explains anything without the statement of 
its purpose. A chair is something to sit down on; a watch is 
something to tell time by; a lamp is something to give illu- 
mination in the dark — and lacking this purposive description, 
the story of the precedent history of none of these things, 
from their original materials to their present shape, would in 
the least tell what they really are. One who knows all else 
about a telephone, practically knows nothing, unless he is 
aware of what it is for. Nor is the necessity of such explana- 
tion lessened when scientists endeavor descriptions in their 
special realms. Huxley, narrating the growth of a sala- 
mander's Qgg, writes, "Let a moderate supply of warmth reach 
its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so 
rapid, and yet so steady and so purposelike in their succession, 
that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled 
modeler upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible 
trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and 
smaller portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of 
granules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of the 

222 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced 
out the line to be occupied by the spinal column and moulded 
the contour of the body ; pinching up the head at one end, the 
tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into the due 
salamandrine proportions, in so artistic a way, that, after 
watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily 
possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision 
than an achromatic, would show the hidden artist, with his 
plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect 
his work." The obvious fact is that salamanders' eggs act as 
though they were seriously intent on making salamanders ; and 
lion's cells as though they were tremendously in earnest about 
making lions. As Herbert Spencer said of a begonia leaf, 
"We have therefore no alternative but to say, that the living 
particles composing one of these fragments, have an innate 
tendency to arrange themselves into the shape of the organism 
to which they belong." But if this is so, purpose is essential 
in the description of every living thing. All about us is a 
world of life with something strikingly like purposeful action 
rampant everywhere, so that in describing an elm tree it will 
not do to say only that forces from behind pushed it into 
being; one must say, too, that from our first observation of 
its cells they acted as though they were intent on making 
nothing else but elm. They went about their business as 
though they had a purpose. The tree's cause is not alone the 
forces from behind; it is as well the aim that in the cells' 
action lay ahead. 

Men can describe nothing in heaven above or on the earth 
beneath without the use of purposive terminology. How shall 
they try otherwise to describe the universe? A world in 
which the minutest particles and cells all act as though they 
were eagerly intent on achieving aims, can only with diffi- 
culty be thought of as an aimless whole. Man's conviction is 
insistent and imperious that creation, so surcharged with pur- 
poses, must have Purpose. The greatest scientists themselves 
{ are often our best witnesses here. Charles Darwin and Alfred 
! Russel Wallace are the twin discoverers of evolution. Said 
» the former: "If we consider the whole universe the mind 
i refuses to look at it as the outcome of chance." Said the 
I latter: the world is "a manifestation of creative power, direc- 
I tive mind, and ultimate purpose." 

What such men have coldly said, the men of devout religion 
223 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

have set on fire with passionate faith. They have been sure 
that this world is not 

" A tale 

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

Signifying nothing.'' 

In every cause that makes for man's salvation they have seen 
the manifest unveiling of divine intent. God is in earnest — 
this conviction has possessed them utterly, and to live and die 
for those things on behalf of which the Eternal is tremen- 
dously concerned has been the aim, the motive, and the glory 
of their lives. 

II 

One need only watch with casual observance the multitudes 
who say that they believe in God, to see how few of them 
believe in this God who is in earnest. When they confess 
their faith in deity they have something else in mind beside 
the God of the Bible, compassionately purposeful about his 
world and calling men to be his fellow-workers. Let us there- 
fore consider some of the fallacies that enable men to believe 
in a God who is not in earnest 

For one thing, some put God far away. Missionaries in 
Africa's interior find tribes worshiping stocks, stones, de- 
mons, ghosts, but this does not mean that no idea of a great 
original god is theirs. Often they are not strangers to that 
thought, but, as an old Africander woman said, "He never 
concerned himself with me ; why should I concern myself with 
him?" To such folk a great god exists, but he does not care; 
he dwells apart, an indifferent deity, who has left this world 
in the hands of lesser gods that really count. The task of 
the missionary, therefore, is not to prove the existence of a 
creator — "No rain, no mushrooms," said an African chief; 
"no God, no world" — but it is to persuade men that the God 
who seems so far away is near at hand, that he really 
cares, and over each soul and all his world is sacrificially in 
earnest. 

Such missionary work is not yet needless among Christian 
people. Said a Copenhagen preacher in a funeral discourse, 
"God cannot help us in our great sorrow, because he is so 
infinitely far away; we must therefore look to Jesus." One 

224 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

feels this Siberian exile of God from all vital meaning for 
our humanity, when he is called the "Absolute," the "Great 
First Cause," the "Energy from which all things proceed." 
Like the man, examined by the Civil Service, who, asked the 
distance from sun to earth, answered, "I do not know how far 
the sun is from the earth; but it is far enough so that it will 
not interfere with the proper performance of my duties at the 
Customs Office," so men with phrases like "the Great First 
Cause" put God an immeasurable distance off. No man has 
dealings with a "Great First Cause," no "Great First Cause" 
ever had vital, personal, constraining meanings for a man. 
Rather across infinite distance and time unthinkable, we 
vaguely picture a dim Figure, who gave this toboggan of a 
universe its primal shove and has not thought seriously of it 
since. So a wanderer down the street might put a child upon 
her sled and giving her a start down-hill, go on his way. 
She may have a pleasant slide, but he will not know ; she may 
fall off, but he will not care; there may be a tragic accident, 
but that will not be his concern — he has gone away off down 
the street. Multitudes of nominaj believers have a god like 
that. 

In comparison with such, one thinks of men like Living- 
stone. His God was compassionately concerned for Africa, 
spoke about black folk as Hosea heard him speak concerning 
Israel, "How can I give thee up? How can I let thee go?" 
until the fire of the divine earnestness lit a corresponding 
ardor in Livingstone's heart and he went out to be God's man 
in the dark continent. Such men have smitten the listless 
world as winds fill flapping sails, crying "Move!" And the 
God of such has been tremendously in earnest. 



Ill 

Some gain a God lacking serious purpose, not by putting 
him afar off, but by endeavoring to bring him so near that 
they diffuse him everywhere. Writers tell us that God is in 
every rustling leaf and in every wave that breaks upon the 
beach; we are assured that God is in every gorgeous flower 
and in every flaming sunset. And the poetry of this is so 
alluring that we cannot bear to have God specially anywhere, 
because we are so anxious to keep him everywhere. Preach- 

225 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

ers delight to illustrate their thought of God with figures 
drawn from nature's invisible energies — 

"Who has seen the wind? 

Neither I nor you : 
But when the leaves hang trembling 
The wind is passing through. 

Who has seen the wind? 

Neither you nor I : 
But when the trees bow down their heads 

The wind is passing by." 

By such comparisons are we taught to see that God invisibly 
is everywhere. 

For all the valuable truth that such speech contains, its 
practical issue, in many minds today, is to strip God of the 
'last shred of personality, and with that loss to end the possi- 
bility of his being in earnest about anything. He has become 
refined Vapor thinly diffused through space. Folk say they 
love to meditate on him, and well they may ! For such a god 
asks nothing of anybody except meditation ; he has no pur- 
poses that call for earnestness in them. When little children 
are ruined in a city's tenements, when the liquor traffic bru- 
talizes men, when economic inequity makes many poor that 
a few may be made rich, when war clothes the world with 
unutterable sorrow, such a god does not care. He is not in 
earnest about anything. For the only thing in the universe 
that can be consciously in earnest is personality, and when 
one depersonalizes God, the remainder is a deity who has no 
love, no care, no purpose. Thousands do obeisance to such a 
gaseous idol. 

From this fallacy spring such familiar confessions of faith 
as this, "God is not a person ; he is spirit." If by this negation 
one intends to say that God is not a limited individual, tlja^f 
obviously true; but the contrast between personality and spirit 
is impossible. One may as well speak of dry water as of 
impersonal spirit. Rays of radium are unimaginably minute 
and swift, but they are not spirit. Nothing in the impersonal 
realm can be conceived so subtle and refined that it is spirit. 
Spirit begins only where love and intelligence and purpose 
are, and these all are activities of personality. No one can 

226 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

really believe what Jesus said, "God is a Spirit," without being 
ready to pray as Jesus prayed, "Our Father." 

Between an impersonal, diffused, and gaseous god, and the 
God of the Bible, how great the difference ! God's pervading 
omnipresence is indeed affirmed in Scripture. There, as much 
as in any modern thought, the heavens declare his glory, the 
flowers of the field are illustrations of his care, and the influ- 
ences of his spirit are like the breeze across the hills. To the 
ancient Hebrew, heaven and sheol were the highest and the 
lowest, but of each the Psalmist says to God, "Thou art there," 
and as for the uttermost parts of the sea, "even there shall 
thy hand lead me" (Psalm 139:7-10). Cries Jeremiah from 
the Old Testament, "Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and 
not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places 
so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill 
heaven and earth?" (Jer. 2^:2^ 24). And Paul answers from 
the New Testament, "Not far from every one of us : for in 
him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:27, 28). 
But the God of the Bible who so pervades and sustains all 
existence never degenerates into a Vapor. When Egyptian 
taskmasters crack their whips over Hebrew slaves, he cares. 
When exiles try in vain to sing the songs of Zion in a strange 
land, he cares. When evil men build Jerusalem with blood, 
and rapacious men pant after the dust on the head of the poor, 
he cares. He is prodigiously in earnest, and those who best 
represent him, from the great prophets to the sacrificial Son, 
are like him in this, that they are mastered by consuming pur- 
pose. The God of the Bible is sadly needed by his people. 

I For lack of him religion grows often listless and churches be- 

! come social clubs. 

IV 

By another road men travel to believe in a God who is not 
J in earnest: they think of him as an historic being. It was 
'said of Carlyle, shrewdly if unjustly, that his God lived until 
(the death of Oliver Cromwell. Whatever may be the truth 
about Carlyle, it is easy to find folk whose God to all intents 
and purposes is dead. Long since he closed his work, spoke 
his last word, and settled down to inactivity and silence. He 
'made the world, created man, thundered from Sinai, estab- 
lished David's kingdom, brought back the exiles, inspired the 

227 

i 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

prophets and sent his Son. He once was earnest; the record 
of his ancient acts is long and glorious, and men find comfort 
in reading what he used to do. They would not explicitly con- 
fess it, but in fact they habitually think of God in the past 
tense. ' They cannot conceive the universe as happening by 
chance, and they posit God as making it ; they cannot believe 
that the transcendent characters of olden times were unin- 
spired, so God becomes the explanation of their power. 
When' such believers wish to assure themselves of God they 
go to the stern of humanity's ship and watch the wake far 
to the rear; but they never stand on the ship's bridge, and 
feel it sway and turn at the touch of a present Captain in con- 
trol. They have not risen to the meaning of the Bible's reiter- 
ated phrase, "the living God" 

Hoffding tells us that in a Danish Protestant church, well 
on into the nineteenth century, worshipers maintained the 
custom of bowing, when they passed a certain spot upon the 
wall. The reason, which no one knew, was discovered when 
removal of the whitewash revealed a Roman Catholic Ma- 
donna. Folk had bowed for three centuries before the place 
where the Madonna used to be. So some folk worship deity ; 
he is not a present reality but a tradition; their faith is 
directed not toward the living God himself, but toward what 
some one else has written about a God who used to be alive. 
They do not feel now God's plans afoot, his purposes as cer- 
tainly in progress now as ever in man's history. They stand 
rather like unconverted Gideon, facing backwards and lament- 
ing, "Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers 
told us of?" (Judges 6:13). 

Not by what we say, but by our practical attitudes we most 
reveal how little we believe in an earnest, living God whose 
voice calls us, whose plans need us, as much as ever Moses or 
David or Paul was summoned and required. If we say that 
we do believe in this living God we are belied by our dis- 
couragements, deserving as we often do the rebuke which 
Luther's wife administered to the Reformer. "From what you 
have said," she remarked, standing before him clothed in deep, 
mourning black, "and from the way you feel and act I sup- 
posed that God was dead." If we say that we believe in a 
living, earnest God, we are belied by our reluctance to ex- 
pect and welcome new revelations of God's truth and enlarg 
ing visions of his plan. Willing to believe what the astron 

228 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

omers say, that light from a new star reaches the earth each 
year, we act as though God's spiritual universe were smaller 
than his physical, and do not eagerly await the new light 
perpetually breaking from his heavens. But most of all the 
little influence which our faith in God has upon our practical 
service is a scathing indictment of its vitality and power. 
No one who really believes in an earnest, living God can have 
an undedicated life. He may not think of the Divine in the 
past tense chiefly; the present and the future even more be- 
long to God ; and through each generation runs the earnest 
purpose of the Eternal, who has never said his last word on 
any subject, nor put the final hammer blow on any task. A 
faith like this, deeply received and apprehended, is a master- 
ful experience. It changes the inner quality of life; it makes 
the place whereon we stand holy ground ; it urgently im- 
presses us into the service of those causes that we plainly see 
have in them the purpose of God. No outlook upon life com- 
pares with this in grandeur; no motive for life is at once so 
weighty. and so fine. 



One of the subtlest fallacies by which we miss believing in 
an earnest God is not describable as an opinion. Men fall 
into it, who neither reduce God to a Great First Cause, nor 
diffuse him into a vapor, nor regard him as an historic being. 
They rather allow their superstitious sentiments to take the 
place of worthy faith. Plenty of people who warmly would 
insist on their religion, reveal in their practical attitudes how 
utterly bereft of serious moraf purpose their God is. They 
think their fortune will be better if they do not sit thirteen 
at a table or occup3' room thirteen at a hotel ; on occasion 
they throw salt or look at the moon over their right shoulders 
and rap on wood to assure their safety or their luck; and 
to be quite certain of divine favor they hang fetishes, like 
rabbits' feet, about their necks. Their attitude toward such 
j surviving pagan superstitions is like Fontenelli's toward 
ghosts. "I do not believe in them," he said, "but I am afraid 
of them." That this is a law-abiding universe with moral 
I purpose in it, such folk obviously do not believe. Their God 
]is not in earnest. He spends his time watching for dinner 
Parties of thirteen or listening for folk who forget to rap on 

229 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

wood when they boast that they have not been ill all winter. 
The utter poverty to which great words may be reduced by 
meager minds is evident when such folk say that they believe 
in God. 

Even when these grosser forms of superstition are not 
present, others hardly more respectable may take their place. 
God is pictured as a King, surrounded with court ritual, in 
the complete and proper observance of which he takes delight, 
and any rupture in whose regularity awakes his anger. To 
go to church, to say our prayers, to read our Bibles, to be 
circumspect on Sunday, to help pay the preacher's salary and 
to contribute to the missionary cause — such things as these 
comprise the court ritual of .God. These Christian acts are not 
presented as gracious privileges, opportunities, like fresh air 
and sunshine and friendship, to make life rich and service- 
able ; they are presented as works of merit, by which we gain 
standing in God's favor and assure ourselves of his benignity. 
For with those who so conform to his ordinances and respect 
his taboos, he is represented as well-pleased, and he blesses 
them with special favors. But any infraction of these rituals 
is sure to bring terrific punishment. God watches those who 
do not sing his praises or who fail in praying, and he marks 
them for his vengeance ! Dr. Jowett tells us that in the Sun- 
day school room of the English chapel where as a child he 
worshiped, a picture hung that to his fascinated and fright- 
ened imagination represented the character of God : a huge 
eye filled the center of the heavens, and from it rays of vision 
fell on every sort of minute happening and small misdeed on 
earth. As such a monstrous^ Detective, jealous of his rights 
and perquisites, God is how often pictured to the children! 
So H. G. Wells indignantly interprets his experience: "I, 
who write, was so set against God, thus rendered. He and 
his Hell were the nightmare of my childhood ; I hated him 
while I still believed in him, and who could help but hate? I 
thought of him as a fantastic monster, perpetually spying, per- 
petually listening, perpetually waiting to condemn and to 
strike me dead; his flames as ready as a grill-room fire. He 
was over me and about my feebleness and silliness and for- 
getfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child drowning 
in mid-Atlantic. When I was still only a child of thirteen, 
by the grace of the true God in me, I flung this lie out of my 
mind, and for many years, until I came to see that God him- 

230 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-cJ 

sell had done this thing for me, the name of God meant 
nothing to me but the hideous sear in my heart where a fear- 
ful demon had been." 

This "bogey God" is in earnest about nothing except the ob- 
servance of his little rituals ; he is unworthy of a good man's 
worship, he has no purpose that can capture the consent and 
inspire the loyalty of serious folk. How many so-called un- 
believers are in revolt against this perversion of the idea of 
God, taught them in childhood ! The deity whom they refuse 
to credit is not the Father, with "the eternal purpose which he 
purposed in Christ" (Eph. 3: 11) ; often they have not heard 
of him. Their denial is directed against another sort of God. 
"I wish I could recall clearly," writes one, "the conception of 
God which I gained as a boy in Sunday school. He was as 
old as grandfather, I know, but not so kind. We were told 
to fear him." Surely the real God must sympathize with 
those who hate his caricature. A vindictive Bogey, quer- 
ulous about' the mint, anise, and cummin of his ritual, in earn- 
est about nothing save to reward obsequious servants and 
to have his vengeance out on the careless and disobedient, is 
poles asunder from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ with his majestic purpose for the world's salvation. 



VI 

Of all the sentiments, however, by which a worthy faith is 
made impossible, none is so common, in these recent years,, 
as the ascription to God of a weak and flaccid affectionateness. 
God's love is interpreted by love's meaning in hours when we 
are gentle with our children or tender with our friends. The 
soft and cosy aspects of love, its comforts, its pities, its affec- 
tions, are made central in our thought of God. We are taught, 
as children, that he loves us as our mothers do ; and as from, 
them we look for coddling when we cry for it, so are our ex- 
pectations about God. Our religion becomes a selfish seeking 
for divine protection from life's ills, a recipe for ease, an 
expectant trust, that as we believe in God he in return will 
nurse us, unharmed and happy, through our lives. No one 
intimately acquainted with the religious life of men and 
women can be unaware of this widespread, ingrained belief in 
a soft, affectionate, grandmotherly God. What wonder that 

231 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

life brings fearful disillusionment! What wonder that in a 
world where all that is valuable has been 

"Battered with the shocks of doom 
To shape and use," 

the God of coddling love seems utterly impossible! 

The lack in this fallacious faith is central; there is no place 
in it for the movement of God's moral purpose. To ascribe 
love to God ivithout making it a quality of his unalterable 
purpose^ which must sweep on through costs in suffering how- 
ever great, is to misread the Gospel. Many kinds of love are 
known in our experience, from a nursing mother with her 
babe to a military leader with his men. In Donald Hankey's 
picture of "the Beloved Captain" we see affection and tender- 
ness, as beautiful as they are strong: "It was a wonderful 
thing, that smile of his. It was something worth' living for, 
and worth working for. ... It seemed to make one look 
at things from a different point of view, a finer point of view, 
his point of view. There was nothing feeble or weak about 
it. . . . It meant something. It meant that we were his 
men and that he was proud of us. . . . When we failed 
him, when he was disappointed in us, he did not smile. He 
did not rage or curse. He just looked disappointed, and that 
made us feel far more savage with ourselves than any amount 
of swearing would have done. . . . The fact was that he 
had won his way into our affections. We loved him. And 
there isn't anything stronger than love, when all's said and 
done." 

Yet, this Captain, loving and beloved, will lead his men in 
desperate charges, where death falls in showers, but where 
the purpose which their hearts have chosen forces them to go. 
The love of God must be like that; it surely is if Jesus' love 
is its embodiment. His affection for his followers, his solici- 
tude and tenderness have been in Christian eyes, how beauti- 
ful! They shine in words like John's seventeenth chapter 
where love finds transcendent utterance. Yet this same 
Master said : "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst 
of wolves" (Matt. 10:16); "Blessed are ye when men shall 
reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil 
against you falsely for my sake" (Matt. 5:11); "Then shall 

232 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-cJ 

they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you ; and ye 
shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake" (Matt. 
24:9) ; "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the 
hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he 
offereth service unto God" (John 16:2) ; "If any man cometh 
unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, 
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life 
also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). The love of 
Jesus was no coddling affection; it had for its center a moral 
purpose that balked at no sacrifice. He took crucifixion for 
himself, and to his beloved he cried, "If any man would 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross r 
and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Such love is God's; and 
preachers who advertise his Fatherhood as a gentle nurse that 
shelters us from suffering have sapped the Gospel of its moral 
power. God's love is austere as well as bountiful; he is, as 
Emerson said, the "terrific benefactor." 

Indeed, faith in a God of coddling love may be one of the 
most pernicious influences in human life. Our trust, so mis- 
interpreted, becomes a cushion on which to lie, a sedative by 
which to sleep. When ills afflict the world that men could 
cure, such misbelievers merely trust in God ; when tasks await 
man's strength, they quietly retreat upon their faith that God 
is good and will solve all, until religion becomes a by-word and 
a hissing on the lips of earnest men. Such misbelievers have 
not dimly seen the Scripture's meaning, where faith is not 
a pillow but a shield, from behind which plays a sword 
(Eph. 6: 16) and where men do not sleep by faith, but "fight 
the good fight of faith" instead (I Tim. 6:12). Or if such 
misbelievers do rouse themselves to lay hold on their Divinity, 
it is to demand God's love for them and not to offer their lives 
to God. As Sydney Smith exclaimed about some people's 
patriotism, "God save the King! in these times too often 
means, God save my pension and my place, God give my 
sisters an allowance out of the Privy Purse, let me live upon 
the fruits of other men's industry and fatten upon the plunder 
of the public." 

Faith in God never is elevated and ennobling until we over- 
pass "God for our lives l" to cry u Our lives for God!" Then 
at the luminous center of our faith shines the divine purpose, 
costly but wonderful, that binds the ages together in spiritual 
unity. To that we dedicate our lives; in that we exceedingly 

233 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

rejoice. No longer do we test God's goodness by our happiness 
or our ill-fortune; we are his through fair weather and 
through foul. No longer do we merely hold beliefs, we are 
held by them, captured now and not simply consoled by faith. 
Only so are we learning discipleship to Christ and are begin- 
ning really to believe in the Christian God. 



VII 

From all these common fallacies of thought and sentiment 
one turns to the New Testament to find the God of the Gospel. 
The very crux of the Good Tidings is that God is so much in 
earnest that he is the eternal Sufferer. The ancient Greeks 
had a god of perfect bliss ; he floated on from age to age in 
undisturbed tranquillity ; no cry of . man ever reached his 
empyrean calm; his life was an endless stream of liquid hap- 
piness. How different this Greek deity is from ours may 
be perceived if one tries to say of him those things which the 
Scripture habitually says of God. "In all their affliction he 
was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9); "Can a woman forget her suck- 
ing child, that she should not have compassion on the son 
of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget 
thee" (Isa. 49: 15) ; "God, being rich in mercy, for his great 
love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead through 
our trespasses" (Eph 2:4, 5) ; "God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3: 16). None of these 
things that Christians say about their God can be said of a 
deity who dwells in tranquil bliss. 

Indeed let one stand over against a war-torn, unhappy world 
and try to think that God does not suffer in man's agony, 
and he will see how useless and incredible such a God would 
be. God looks on Belgium and he does not care; he looks on 
Armenia desolate and Poland devastated, and he does not 
care; he sits in heaven and sees his children wounded and 
alone in No-man's land, watches the deaths, the heart-breaks, 
the poverty of war, its ruined childhood and its shattered 
families, and he does not care — how impossible it is to 
believe in such a God! A God who does not care does not 
count. 

Christians, therefore, have the God who really meets the 
needs of men. He cares indeed, and, with all the modesty 

234 



FAITH IN THE EARNEST GOD [IX-c] 

that words of human emotion must put on when they are ap- 
plied to him, he suffers in the suffering of men and is cruci- 
fied in his children's agonies. God limited himself in making 
such a world as this ; in it he cannot lightly do what he will ; 
he has a struggle on his heart; he makes his way upward 
against obstacles that man's imagination cannot measure. 
There is a cross forever at the heart of God. He climbs his 
everlasting Calvary toward the triumph that must come, and 
he is tremendously in earnest. 

One important consequence follows such faith as this. 
Confidence in such an earnest, sacrificial God makes inevit- 
able the Christian faith in immortality. Our solar system is 
no permanent theater for God's eternal purposes ; it is doomed 
to dissolution as certainly as any human body is doomed to 
die. In the Lick observatory one reads this notice under a 
picture of the sun : "The blue stars are considered to be in 
early life, the yellow stars in middle life, the red stars in old 
age. . . . From the quality of its spectrum the sun is classi- 
fied as a star in middle age." Those, therefore, who, denying 
their own immortality, comfort themselves with prophesying 
endless progress for the race upon the earth, have no basis 
for their hopes. "We must therefore renounce those brilliant 
fancies," says Faye the scientist, "by which we try to deceive 
ourselves in order to endow man with unlimited posterity, and 
to regard the universe as the immense theater on which is to 
be developed a spontaneous progress wichout end. On the 
contrary, life must disappear, and the grandest material works 
of the human race will have to be effaced by degrees under 
the action of a few physical forces which will survive man 
for a time. Nothing will remain — 'Even the ruins will per- 
ish.' " 

If one believes, therefore, in the God who is in earnest, he 
cannot content himself with such a universe — lacking any 
permanent element, any abiding reality in which the moral 
gains of man's long struggle are conserved. God's purpose 
cannot be so narrow in horizon that it is satisfied with a few 
million years of painful experiment, costly beyond imagina- 
tion, yet with no issue to crown its sacrifice. In such a uni- 
verse as Faye pictures, lacking immortality, generation after 
generation of men suffer, aspire, labor, and die, and this shall 
be the history of all creation, until at last Shakespeare's 
prophecy shall be fulfilled, 

235 



[IX-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

"The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind." 

If such is to be the story of creation, there is no purpose in 
it and the Christian faith in an earnest God is vain. 

Only one truth is adequate to crown our confidence in a pur- 
poseful universe and to make it reasonable : personality must 
persist. We believe in immortality, not because we meanly 
want rewards ahead, but because in no other way can life, 
viewed as a whole, find sense and reason.' If personality per- 
sists, this transient theater of action and discipline may serve 
its purpose in God's time, and disappear. He is in earnest, 
but not for rocks and suns and stars, he is in earnest about 
persons — the sheep of his pasture are men. They are not 
mortal; they carry over into the eternal world the spiritual 
gains of earth; and all life's struggle — its vicarious sacrifice, 
its fearful punishments, its labor for better circumstance and 
worthier life — is justified in its everlasting influence on per- 
sonality. When we say that God cares, we mean no vague, 
diffusive attitude toward a system that lasts for limited 
millenniums and then comes to an uneventful end in a cold 
sun and a ruined earth. We mean that he cares for person- 
ality which is his child, that he suffers in the travail of his 
children's character, and that this divine solicitude has ever- 
lasting issues when the heavens "wax old like a garment." 
Still Paul's statement stands, one of the most worthy sum- 
maries of God's earnestness that ever has been written: "The 
creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be 
revealed" (Rom. 8:i9). 2 

2 Moffatt's Translation. 



236 



CHAPTER X 

Faith in Christ the Savior: 
Forgiveness 

DAILY READINGS 

During the next two weeks we are to consider some of the 
distinctive meanings which faith in Christ has had for his 
disciples. They have found in that faith unspeakable bless- 
ing and have uttered their gratitude in radiant language. 
But, just because of this, many folk find themselves in diffi- 
culty. Their expectations concerning the Christian life have 
been lifted very high, and in their experience of it they 
have been disappointed. Their problem is not theoretical 
doubt, but practical disillusionment. Their difficulty lies in 
their experience that the Christian life, while it may be 
theoretically true, is not practically what it is advertised to 
be. At this common problem let us look in the daily read- 
ings. 

Tenth Week, First Day 

Many expect in the Christian experience an emotional life 
of joy and quietude which they have not found. They are 
led to expect this by many passages of Scripture about "peace 
in believing," by many hymns of exultation where a mood of 
unqualified spiritual triumph finds voice, and by testimonies 
of men who speak of living years without any depressed hours 
or flagging spirits. Such a wonderful life of elevated emotion 
many crave for themselves ; they came into the Christian 
fellowship expecting it; and they neither have it, nor are 
likely to achieve it. Now the beauty of a clear, high emotional 
life no one can doubt, but we must not demand it as a con- 
dition of our keeping faith. We ought not to seek God 
simply for the sake of sensational experiences, no matter how 
desirable they may be. In all the ages before Christ, the 

237 



[X-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

outstanding example of deep personal religion, expressing 
itself in over forty years of splendidly courageous prophetic 
ministry, is Jeremiah, and his temperament was never marked 
by quietude and joy. His emotional life was profoundly 
affected by his faith : courage was substituted for fear. But if 
he had demanded the mood of the 103rd psalm as a price for 
continued faith, he would have lost his faith. He was not 
temperamentally constructed like the psalmist — and he was a 
far greater personality. We must not be too much concerned 
about our spiritual sensations. Consider the Master's parable 
about the* two sons: one had amiable feelings, but his will 
was wrong, the other lacked satisfactory emotions, but he did 
the work. 

But what think ye? A man had two sons; and he came 
to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. 
And he answered and said, I will not: but afterward he 
repented himself, and went. And he came to the second, 
and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: 
and went not. Which of the two did the will of his 
father? They say, The first. — Matt. 21: 28-31. 

Ah, Lord, unto whom all hearts are open; Thou canst 
govern the vessel of our souls far better than we can. Arise, 
O Lord, and command the stormy wind and the troubled sea 
of our hearts to be still, and at peace in Thee, that we may 
look up to Thee undisturbed, and abide in union with Thee, 
our Lord. Let us not be carried hither and thiiher by wander- 
ing thoughts, but, forgetting all else, let us see and hear Thee. 
Renew our spirits; kindle in us Thy light, that it may shine 
within us, and our hearts may burn in love and adoration to- 
wards Thee. Let Thy Holy Spirit dwell in us continually, 
and make us Thy temples and sanctuary, and fill us with 
Divine love and light and life, with devout and heavenly 
thoughts, with comfort and strength, with joy and peace. 
Amen. — Johann Arndt, 1555. 

Tenth Week, Second Day 

Many came into the Christian life because they needed con- 
quering power in their struggle against sin. They were told 
that absolute victory could be theirs through Christ, and they 
set their hearts on that in ardent hope and expectation. But 
they are disappointed. That they have been helped they 

238 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-2] 

would not deny, but they find that the battle with besetting 
sin is a running fight; it has not been concluded by a final 
and resounding victory. This seems to them a denial of what 
Christian preachers and Christian hymns have promised, and 
perhaps it is. Hymns and preachers are not infallible. Chris- 
tian experience, however, is plainly aligned against their dis-. 
appointment. Some men under the power of Christ are im- 
mediately transformed so that an old sin becomes thence- 
forth utterly distasteful; even the desire for it is banished 
altogether. But a great preacher, only recently deceased, no 
less really under the power of Christ, had all his life to 
fight a taste for drink which once had mastered him. His 
battle never ceased. His victory consisted not in the elimina- 
tion of his appetite, but in abiding power to keep up the 
struggle, to refuse subjugation to it, and at last gloriously 
to fall on sleep, admired and loved by his people who had seen 
in him steadfast, unconquerable will, sustained by faith. To 
have done with a sinful appetite in one conclusive victory 
is glorious ; but we must not demand it as a price of keeping 
faith. Perhaps our victory must come through the kind of 
patient persistence which James the Apostle evidently knew. 

Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into mani- 
fold temptations; knowing that the proving of your faith 
worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, 
that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. 

But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, 
who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it 
shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing 
doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the 
sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man 
think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; a double- 
minded man, unstable in all his ways. — James 1: 2-8. 

O Lord God Almighty, who givest power to the faint, and 
increasest strength to them that have no might; without Thee 
we can do nothing, but by Thy gracious assistance we are en- 
abled for the performance of every duty laid upon us. Lord 
of power and love, we come, trusting in Thine almighty 
strength, and Thine infinite goodness, to ask from Thee what 
is wanting in ourselves; even that grace which shall help us 
such to be, and such to do, as Thou wouldst have us. O our 
God, let Thy grace be sufficient for us, and ever present with 

239 



[X-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

us, that we may do all things as we ought. We will trust in 
Thee, in whom is everlasting strength. Be Thou our Helper, 
to carry us on beyond our own strength, and to make all that 
we think, and speak, and do, acceptable in Thy sight; through 
lesus Christ. Amen. — Benjamin Jenks, 1646. 



Tenth Week, Third Day 

Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; 

He leadeth me beside still waters. 

He restoreth my soul: 

He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's 

sake. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 

death, 
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 

— Psalm 23: 1-4. 

What expectations are awakened by such a passage ! Many 
have come into the Christian life because in experience they 
have found that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his 
steps." They wanted a Guide in the mysterious pilgrimage 
of life, and in the words of hymns like, "He leadeth me, O 
blessed thought I" they saw the promise of a God-conducted 
experience. But they are disappointed. They have the same 
old puzzles to face about what they ought to do; they have 
no divine illumination that clears up in advance their un- 
certainty as to the wisdom of their choices ; they are not 
vividly aware of any guidance from above to save them from 
the perplexities which their companions face about conduct 
and career. Of course part of their difficulty is due to false 
expectation. Not even Paul or John was given mechanical 
guidance, infallible and unmistakable; they never had a syl- 
labus of all possible emergencies with clear directions as to 
what should be done in every case ; they were guided through 
their normal faculties made sensitive to divine suggestion, 
and doubtless they never could clearly distinguish between 
their thought and their inspirations. Divine guidance did not 
save them from puzzling perplexities and unsure decisions. 
But it did give them certainty that they were in God's hands; 
that he had hold of the reins behind their human grasp; 

240 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-4] 

that when they did wisely and prayerfully the best they knew, 
he would use it somehow to his service. And so far as the 
vivid consciousness of being guided is concerned, that prob- 
ably came in retrospect; when they saw how the road came 
out, they agreed that God's hand must have been in the 
journey. Such an experience it is reasonable to expect and 
possible to have. 

O God our Lord, the stay of all them that put their trust in 
Thee, zvherever Thou leadest we would go, for Thy ways are 
perfect wisdom and love. Even when we walk through the 
dark valley, Thy light can shine into our hearts and guide us 
safely through the night of sorrow. Be Thou our Friend, and 
we need ask no more in heaven or earth, for Thou art the 
Comfort of all who trust in Thee, the Help and Defence of 
all who hope in Thee. O Lord, we would be Thine; let us 
never fall away from Thee. We would accept all things with- 
out murmuring from Thy hand, for whatever Thou dost is 
right. Blend our wills with Thine, and then we need fear no 
evil nor death itself, for all things must work together for 
our good. Lord, keep us in Thy love and truth, comfort us 
zvith Thy light, and guide us by Thy Holy Spirit; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — S. Weiss, 1738. 



Tenth Week, Fourth Day 

Many folk grow up into the Christian life, and so interpret 
the love of God that they expect from him affectionate 
mothering; they look to him to keep them from trouble. In 
childhood, sheltered from life's tragic incidents, this expecta- 
tion was more or less realized; but now in maturity they are 
disappointed. God has not saved them from trouble; he has 
not dealt with them in maternal tenderness. Rather Job's 
complaint to God is on their lips : 

I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: 

I stand up, and thou gazest at me. 

Thou art turned to be cruel to me; 

With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me. 

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? 
Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 

241 



[X-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

When I looked for good, then evil came; 

And when I waited for light, there came darkness^ 

My heart is troubled, and resteth not; 

Days of affliction are come upon me. 

— Job 30: 20, 21; 25-27. 

One such disappointed spirit says that in youth, even if she 
hurt her finger, she was told to pray to God and he would 
take away the bruise ; but now life does not seem to be 
directed by that kind of a God at all. It isn't! A pregnant 
source of lost faith is to be found in this unscriptural pres- 
entation of God's love. In Scripture God's love for his peo- 
ple and their tragic suffering are put side by side, and the 
Cross where the well-beloved Son is crucified is typical of 
the whole Book's assertion that God does not keep his chil- 
dren from trouble. Sometimes he leads them into it; and 
always he lets the operation of his essential laws sweep on, 
so that disease and accident and death are no respecters 
of character. When Ananias was sent with God's message 
to the newly converted Paul, that greeting into the Christian 
life concerned "how many things he must suffer" (Acts 9: 
16). Whatever else our faith must take into account, this is 
an unes"capable fact: we are seeking the impossible when we 
ask that our lives be arranged on the basis that we shall not 
face trouble. Faith means a conquering confidence that good 
will, a purpose of eternal love, runs through the whole process. 
It says, not apart from suffering, but in the face of it: 

"I'm- apt to think the man 
That could surround the sum of things, and spy 
The heart of God and secrets of his empire, 
Would speak but love — with him the bright result 
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 
And make one thing of all Theology." 

Almighty God to whom all things belong, whose is light and 
darkness, whose is good and evil, Master of all things, Lord 
of all; who hast so ordered it, that life from the beginning 
shall be a struggle throughout the course, and even to the 
end; so guide and order that struggle within us, that at last 
what is good in us may conquer, and all evil be overcome, 
that all things may be brought into harmony, and God may 
be all in all. So do Thou guide and govern us, that every 

242 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-5] 

day whatsoever betide us, some gain to better things, some 
more blessed joy in higher things may be ours, that so we, 
though but weaklings, may yet {^God-guided, go from strength 
to strength, until at last, delivered from that burden of the 
flesh, through which comes so much struggling, we may enter 
into the land of harmony and of eternal peace. Hear us, of 
Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — George 
Dawson* 1877. 

Tenth Week, Fifth Day 

Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that 
we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and car- 
ried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight 
of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speak- 
ing truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, 
who is the head, even Christ. — Eph. 4: 13-15. v 

Many came into the Christian life familiar with such an 
idea of growth. They expected the new life to be an enlarg- 
ing experience, with new vistas, deepening satisfactions, in- 
creasing certitude. If at the beginning the Christian way did 
not content them, they blamed their immaturity for the un- 
satisfactory experience; they appealed to the days ahead for 
fuller light. But they are disappointed. They have not 
grown. The most they can claim is that they are stationary; 
the haunting suspicion cannot altogether be avoided that 
their faith is dwindling and their fervor burning down. This 
difficulty is not strange — with many folk it is inevitable ; for 
they have never grasped the fact that the Christian life, 
like all life whatsoever, is law-abiding, and that to expect 
effects without cause is vain. That a Christian experience 
has begun with promise does not mean that it will magically 
continue; that the spirit will naturally drift into an enlarg- 
ing life. An emotional conversion, like a flaming meteor, 
may plunge into a man's heart, and soon cool off, leaving a 
dead, encysted stone. But to have a real life in God, that 
begins like a small but vital acorn and grows like an aspiring 
oak, one must obey the laws that make such increasing experi- 
ence possible. To keep fellowship with God unimpeded by 
sin, uninterrupted by neglect; to think habitually as though 

243 



[X-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

God were, instead of casually believing that he is ; to practice 
love continually until love grows real; and to arrange life's 
program conscientiously as though the doing of God's will 
were life's first business — such things alone make spiritual 
growth a possibility. 

We desire to confess, O Lord, that we have not lived ac- 
cording to our promises, nor according to the thoughts and 
intents of our hearts. We have felt the gravitation of things 
that drew us downward from things high and holy. We 
have followed right things how feebly! Weak are we to 
resist the attraction of evils that lurk about the way of 
goodness; and we are conscious that we walk in a vain show. 
We behold and approve Thy law, but find it hard to obey; 
and our obedience is of the outside, and not of the soul 
and of the spirit, with heartiness and full of certainty. We 
rejoice that Thou art a Teacher patient with Thy scholars, 
and that Thou art a Father patient with Thy children. Thou 
art a God of long-suffering goodness, and of tender mercies, 
and therefore we are not consumed. 

And now we beseech of Thee, O Thou unwearied One, 
that Thou wilt inspire us with a heavenly virtue. Lift be- 
fore us the picture of what we should be and what we should 
do, and maintain it in the light, that we may not rub it out 
in forgetfulness; that we may be able to keep before ourselves 
our high calling in Christ Jesus. And may we press forward, 
not as they that have attained or apprehended; may we press 
toward the mark, for the prize of our high calling in Christ 
Jesus, with new alacrity, with growing confidence, and with 
more and more blessedness of joy and peace in the soul. 
Amen. — Henry Ward Beecher. 

Tenth Week, Sixth Day 

The Christian experience which disappoints its possessor 
by lack of growth is common, because so many leave the idea 
of growth vague and undefined. They expect in general to 
grow, but in what direction, to what describable results, they 
never stop to think. If we ran our other business as thought- 
lessly, with as little determinate planning and discipline, as 
we manage our Christian living, any progress would be im- 
possible. What wonder that as Christians we often resemble 
the child who fell from bed at night, and explained the acci- 

244 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-6] 

dent by saying, "I must have gone to sleep too near the place 
where I got in" ! 

Growth is always in definite directions, and folk will do 
well at times, without morbid self-examination, to forecast 
their desired courses. Becoming Christians from motives 
of fear, as many do, we should press on to a fellowship with 
God in which fear vanishes in divine friendship and coopera- 
tion. Choosing the Christian life for self-centered reasons, 
because it can do great things for us, we should press on to 
glory in it as a Cause on which the welfare of the race 
depends and for which we willingly make sacrifice. Begin- 
ning with narrow ideas of service to our friends and neigh- 
borhood, we should press on to genuine interest in the world- 
field, in international fraternity, and in Christ's victory over 
all mankind. Such definite lines of progress we well may set 
before us. And a life that does grow, so that each new 
stage of maturing experience finds deeper levels and greater 
heights, is never disappointing; it is life become endlessly 
interesting and worth while. 

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made 
perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on 
that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. 
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but 
one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, 
and stretching forward to the things which are before, I 
press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high call- 
ing of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many 
as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are 
otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: 
only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule 
let us walk. — Phil. 3: 12-16. 

Our Father, we pray Thee that we may use the blessings 
Thou hast given us, and never once abuse them. We would 
keep our bodies enchanted still with handsome life, wisely 
would we cultivate the intellect which Thou hast throned 
therein, and we would so live with conscience active and will 
so strong that we shall fix our eye on the right, and, amid 
all the distress and trouble, the good report and the evil, 
of our mortal life, steer straightway there, and bate no jot 
of human heart or hope. We pray Thee that we may cultivate 
still more these kindly hearts of ours, and faithfully perform 
our duty to friend and acquaintance, to lover and beloved, to 

245 



[X-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

wife and child, to neighbor and nation, and to all mankind. 
May we feel our brotherhood to the whole human race, 
remembering that nought human is strange to our flesh but 
is kindred to our somL Our Father, we pray that we may 
grow continually in true piety, bringing down everything 
which wXfuld unduly exalt itself, and lifting up what is lowly 
within us, till, though our outward man perish, yet our in- 
ward man shall be renewed day by day, and within us all 
shall be fair and beautiful to Thee, and without us our daily 
lives useful, our whole consciousness blameless in Thy sight. 
Amen. — Theodore Parker. 

Tenth Week, Seventh Day 

While some, for reasons such as w^e have suggested, have 
made at least a partial failure of the Christian life, and are 
tempted to feel that their experience is an argument against 
it, we may turn with confidence to the multitude who have 
found life with Christ an ineffable blessing. 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them that 
are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of 
death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the like- 
ness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 
that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For 
they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; 
but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the 
Spirit is life and peace. — Rom. 8: 1-6. 

Innumerable disciples of Jesus can subscribe to this Pauline 
testimony, and the center of their gratitude, as of his, is the 
victory over sin which faith in Christ has given them. The 
farther they go with him the more wonderful becomes the 
meaning of his Gospel. What Thomas Fuller, in the seven- 
teenth century, wrote about the Bible, they feel about their 
whole relationship with Christ : "Lord, this morning I read 
a chapter in the Bible, and therein observed a memorable pas- 
sage, whereof I never took notice before. Why now, and no 
sooner, did I see it? Formerly my eyes were as open, and 
the letters as legible. . Is there not a thin veil laid over Thy 

246 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

Word, which is more rarified by reading, and at last wholly 
worn away? I see the oil of Thy Word will never leave 
increasing whilst any bring an empty barrel." As for the 
consciousness of filial alliance with the God and Father of 
Jesus, that has been a deepening benediction. How many can 
take over the dual inscription on an ancient Egyptian temple, 
as an expression of their own experience ! A priest had 
written, in the name of the Deity, "I am He who was and is 
and ever shall be, and my veil hath no man lifted." But 
near at hand, some man of growing life and deepening faith 
has added : "Veil after veil have we lifted, and ever the Face 
is more wonderful." 

Eternal and Gracious Father, whose presence comfort eth 
like sunshine after rain; we thank Thee for Thyself and for 
all Thy revelation to us. Our hearts are burdened with 
thanksgiving at the thought of all Thy mercies; for all the 
blessings of this mortal life, for health, for reason, for learn- 
ing, and for love; but far beyond all thought and thankful- 
ness, for Thy great redemption. It was no painless travail 
that brought us to the birth, it has been no common patience 
that has borne with us all this while; long-suffering love, and 
the breaking of the eternal heart alone could reconcile us to 
the life to which Thou hast ordained us. We have seen the 
Son of Man sharing our sickness and shrinking not from our 
shame, we have beheld the Lamb of God bearing the sins of 
the world, we have mourned at the mysterious passion and 
stood astonished at the cross of Jesus Christ ; and behind all 
we have had the vision of an altar-throne and one thereon 
slain from the foundation of the world; heard a voice calling 
us that was full of tears; seen beyond the veil that was rent, 
the agony of God. 

O for a thousand tongues to sing the love that has redeemed 
us. O for a thousand lives that we might yield them all to 
Thee, Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 

I 

Hitherto in our studies we have thought of God as the ob- 
ject of our faith. From the beginning, to be sure, we have 
been using the Master as the Way. The God who is in earn- 

247 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

est about immortal personalities is supremely revealed in 
Jesus Christ. But through Christ's mediation we have been 
trying to pierce to the Eternal character and purpose; we 
have been taking Jesus at his word, "He that believeth on me, 
believeth not on me but on him that sent me" (John 12:44). 

The meaning of faith for the Christian, however, cannot be 
left as though Christ were an instrument which God used 
for his revealing and then thrust aside, a symbol in terms 
of whom we may poetically picture God. Christ has been for 
his people more than a transparent pane, itself almost forget- 
table, through which the divine light shone. His personality 
has been central and dominant, and when his disciples have 
most vividly expressed the meaning of their faith they have 
said that they believed in him. The first Christians whose 
experience is enshrined in the New Testament did not deal 
with faith in God alone. They adored Jesus ; they were 
inimitably thankful to him; they rejoiced to call themselves 
his bondservants and to suffer for him ; they claimed him as 
a brother, but they acknowledged him their Lord as well ; 
and they bowed before him with inexpressible devotion. 
"They all set him in the same incomparable place. They all 
acknowledged to him the same immeasurable debt." 

One need not read far in the New Testament to see why 
these first disciples so adored their Lord. He was their 
Savior. They called him by many other names — Messiah, 
Logos, Son of Man, and Son of God — in their endeavor to 
do justice to his work and character, but one name shines 
among all the rest and swings them about it like planets round 
a sun. He is the Savior. From the annunciation to Joseph, 
"Thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for it is he that shall save his 
people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21), to the New Song of 
the Apocalypse (Rev. 5:5-13), the New Testament is written 
around the central theme of saviorhood. These first disciples 
were vividly aware of an abysmal need, which had been met 
in Christ, a great peril from which through him they had 
escaped ; and throughout the New Testament one never loses 
the accent of astonished gratitude, from folk who were once 
slaves and now are free, who from victims have been turned 
to victors. When Wilberforce's long campaign for the free- 
ing of British slaves was at its climax, the population of 
Jamaica lined the shore for days awaiting the ship that should 
bring news of Parliament's decision. And when from a boat'' 

248 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

prow the messenger cried "Freedom," the island rang with 
the thanksgiving of the liberated. Such rejoicing one hears 
in the New Testament. The disciples speak of the freedom 
wherewith Christ has set them free (Gal. 5:1); they say that 
they were dead and now are made alive (Rom. 6:11-13); 
once overwhelmed by sin, they now cry, "More than con- 
querors" (Rom. 8:37). Nor have they any doubt who is the 
agent or what is the agency of their salvation : Christ is the 
Savior and faith the means. "This is the victory that hath 
overcome the world," they cry, "even our faith" (I John 5:4). 

If we are to understand this attitude of the first disciples 
toward Christ the Savior, we must appreciate as they did the 
peril from which he rescued them. One cannot understand the 
meaning of any character who, like Moses, delivered a people 
from their bondage, unless he deeply feels the importance 
of the problem to whose solution the man contributed. Moses 
shines out against the background of a nation's trouble like 
a star against the midnight sky. When the blackness of the 
night is gone, the star has vanished, too. The race's deliverers 
never can retain their brightness in our gratitude unless we 
keep alive in our remembrance the evil against which they 
fought. If we would know Moses, we must know Pharaoh; 
if we would know Wellington, we must know Napoleon. If 
we are to value truly the great educators, we must estimate 
aright the blight that ignorance lays on human life. John 
Howard will be nothing to us, if we do not know the ancient 
prison system in comparison with which even our modern 
jails are paradise; and Florence Nightingale will be an 
empty name, if we cannot imagine the terrors of war without 
a nurse. Always we must see the stars against the night. 

Nor is there any other way in which a Christian can keep 
alive a vital understanding of his Lord. Many modern Chris- 
tians seem to have lost vision of the problem that Jesus came 
to solve, of the human peril to whose conquest he made the 
supreme contribution. They think that the Church has adored 
Jesus because of a metaphysical theory about him, but all 
theories concerning Christ have arisen from a previous devo- 
tion to him. Or they think that Jesus is adored because he 
was so uniquely beautiful in character. But while without 
this his people never would have called him Lord, not on this 
account chiefly have they looked on him with inexpressible 
devotion. No one can understand the Christian attitude 

249 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

toward Jesus except in terms of the bondage from which he 
came to rescue us. There is a human cry that makes his 
advent meaningful; it is like the night behind the star of 
Bethlehem. Long ago a Psalmist heard that cry and every 
age and land and soul has echoed it, "My sins are mightier 
than I" (Psalm 65:3)* 

II 

The peril of sin as the innermost problem of human life 
is in these days obscure to many minds. For one thing, sin 
has been so continuously preached about, that it seems to some 
an ecclesiastical question, fit for discussion, it may be, in a 
church on Sunday, but otherwise not often emerging in 
ordinary thought. But sin is no specialty of preaching. If 
a man, forgetting churches and sermons, seriously ponders 
human life as he knows it actually to be, if he gathers up in 
his imagination the deepest heartaches of the race, its worst 
diseases, its most hopeless miseries, its ruined childhood, its 
dissevered families, its fallen states, its devastated continents, 
he soon will see that the major cause of all this can be spelled 
with three letters — sin. To make vivid this peril as the very 
crux of humanity's problem on the earth, one needs at times 
to leave behind the customary thoughts and phrases of religion 
and to seek testimony from sources that the Church frequently 
forgets. When governments try to build social states where 
equity and happiness shall reign, their prison systems, their 
criminal codes, their courts of law loudly advertise that their 
problem lies in sin. When jurists plan leagues of nations and 
sign covenants to make the world a more fraternal place, only 
to find greed, hate, and. cruelty demolishing their well-laid 
schemes, their failure uncovers the crucial problem of man's 
sin. When philanthropists try to lift from man's bent back 
the burdens that oppress him, it becomes plain how infinitely 
their task would be lightened, if it were not for sin. As for 
literature — where the seers, regardless of religious prejudice, 
have tried to see into the human heart and truly to report their 
insights — its witness is overwhelming as to what man's prob- 
lem is. No great book of creative literature was ever written 
without sin at the center. Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Faust, 
Les Miserables, Romola, The Scarlet Letter — let the list be 



1 "Iniquities prevail against me." 

250 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

extended in any direction and to any length ! Always the 
insight of the creative seers reports one inner peril of the 
race. Sin is no bogey erected by the theologians, no ghost 
imagined by minds grown morbid with the fear of God. Sin 
to every seeing eye is the one most real and practical problem 
of mankind. 

For another reason this crucial problem *is dimly seen by 
many minds : we do not often use the word about ourselves. 
The hardest thing that any man can ever say is "I have 
sinned." We make mistakes, we have foibles of character and 
conduct, we even fall into error — but we do not often sin. 
By such devices we avoid the painful consciousness of our 
inward malady and even the name of our disease is banished 
from decorous speech. But sin does not go into exile with 
its name. Sin has many aliases and can swiftly shift its guise 
to gain a welcome into any company. 

Sin in the slums is gross and terrible. It staggers down 
the streets, blasphemes with oaths that can be heard, wallows 
in vice unmentionable by modest lips. Then some day pros- 
perity may visit it. It moves to a finer residence, seeks the 
suburbs, or finds domicile on a college campus. It changes 
all its clothes. No longer is it indecent and obscene. Its 
speech is mild, its civility is irreproachable. It gathers a com- 
pany of friends who minister to pleasure and respectability, 
and the cry of the world's need dies unheard at its peaceful 
door. It presses its face continually through the pickets of 
social allowance, like a bad boy who wishes to trespass on 
forbidden ground but fears the consequence. Its goodness is 
superficial seeming; at heart it is as bad as it dares to be. It 
has completely changed its garments, but it is the same sin — 
indulgent, selfish, and unclean. Sin, as anyone can easily 
observe, takes a very high polish. 

Neither by calling sin an ecclesiastical concern nor by cov- 
ering its presence in ourselves with pleasant euphemisms can 
we hide its deadly bane in human life. The truth and im- 
port of this negative statement become clear and convincing 
when its positive counterpart is faced. The world needs 
goodness. The one thing in which mankind is poor and for 
the lack of which great causes lag and noble hopes go unful- 
filled is character. With each access of that humanityleaps 
forward ; with the sag of that all else is failure. And the one 
name for every loss and lack and ruin of character is sin. 

251 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

That is our enemy. Upon the defeat of that all our dearest 
hopes depend, and in its victory every dream of good that the 
race has cherished comes to an end. 

Ill 

The urgency of this truth is manifest when we note the con- 
sequence of sin in our own lives. No statement from antiq- 
uity has accumulated more confirming evidence in the course 
of the centuries than the Psalmist's cry, "My sins are mightier 
than I." Let us consider its truth in the light of our expe- 
rience. 

Our sins are stronger than we are in their power to fasten 
on us a sense of guilt that we cannot shake off. Sinful pleas- 
ures lure us only in anticipation, dancing before us like 
Salome before her uncle, quite irresistible in fascination. 
Happiness seems altogether to depend upon an evil deed. 
But on the day that deed, long held in alluring expectation, is 
actually done— how swift and terrible the alteration in its 
aspect ! It passes from anticipation, through committal, into 
memory, and it never will be beautiful again. We lock it in 
remembrance, as in the bloody room of Bluebeard's palace, 
where the dead things hung; at the thought of it we shrink 
and yet to it our reminiscence continually is drawn. Some- 
thing happens in us as automatic as the dropping of a loos- 
ened apple from a tree; all the laws of the moral universe 
conspire to further it and we have no power to prevent: sin 
becomes guilt. When on a lonely ocean the floating bell- 
buoys toll, no human hands cause them to ring; the waste of 
an unpeopled ocean surrounds them everyway. The sea by its 
own restlessness is ringing its own bells. So tolls remorse 
in a man's heart and no man can stop it. 

Our sins are stronger than we are in their power to become 
habitual. If one who steps from an upper window had only 
the single act to consider, his problem would be simple. He 
could step or not as he chose. But when one steps from an 
upper window he finds himself dealing with a power over 
which his will has no control. Master of his single act, he is 
not master of the gravitation that succeeds it. Many a youth 
blithely plays with sin, supposing that separate deeds — which 
he may do or refrain from as he will — make up the problem. 
Soon or late he finds that he is dealing with moral laws, built 

252 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

into the structure of the universe as gravitation is— laws 
which he did not create and whose operation he cannot con- 
trol. By them with terrific certainty thoughts grow to deeds, 
deeds to habits, habits to character, character to destiny. 

At the beginning sin always comes disguised as liberty. Its 
lure is the seductive freedom which it promises from the 
trammels of conscience and the authority of law. But every 
man who ever yet accepted sin's offer of a free, unfettered 
life, discovered the cheat. Free to do the evil thing, to indulge 
the baser moods — so men begin, but they end not free to stop, 
bound as slaves to the thing that they were free to do. They 
have been at liberty to play with a cuttle-fish, and now that 
the first long arm with its suckers grasps them, and the second 
arm is waving near, they are not at liberty to get away. 

Our sins are mightier than we are in their power to make 
us tempt our fellows. When we picture our sinfulness, even 
to ourselves, we naturally represent our lives assailed by the 
allurements of evil and passively surrendering. We are 
the tempted ; we pity ourselves because the outward pressure 
was too strong for the inward braces. We forget that in 
sin we are not simply the passive subjects of temptation; 
sin always makes us active tempters of our fellows. No drug 
fiend ever is content until he wins a comrade in his vice; a 
thief would have his friends steal, too; a gossip Is not satis- 
fied until other lips are tearing reputations into shreds ; and 
vindictiveness is happiest when other hearts as well are lighted 
with lurid tempers. Sin always is contagious as disease is ; 
the tempted becomes tempter on the instant that he falls. 
Peter weak, lures Jesus to his weakness, and the Master recog- 
nizes the active quality of his disciple's sin; "Get thee behind 
me, Satan!" (Matt. 16:23). Sin satanizes men and sends 
them out to seduce their fellows. When, therefore, a sensi- 
tive man repents of his evil, he abhors himself — not mildly as 
a victim, but profoundly as a victimizer. He repents of the 
way he has played Satan to others, sometimes deliberately, 
sometimes by the unconscious influence of an unworthy spirit. 
He remembers the times when his words have poisoned the 
atmosphere which others breathed, when his tempers have 
conjured up evil spirits in other hearts, when his attitude has 
made wrongdoing easy for his friends and family, and well- 
doing hard. And his desperate helplessness in the face of sin 
is made most evident when he recalls the irrecoverable 

253 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

injury which lives have suffered and are suffering, hurt, per- 
haps ruined, by his evil. 

Our sins are mightier than we are in their power to bring 
their natural consequences upon other lives. The landlord, 
of whom President Hyde has told, who without disinfection 
rented to a new family an apartment where a perilous disease 
had been, is typical of every evil-doer. When the only child 
of the incoming family fell sick of the disease and died, and 
the landlord was faced with his guilt, he pleaded his unwill- 
ingness to spend the money which the disinfection would have 
cost. He denied his Lord for ten dollars. Let the law punish 
him as it can, the crux of his moral problem lies in the fact 
that however much he may be sorry now, he never can bear 
all the consequences of his sin. Somewhere there is a child- 
less home bearing part of the result of his iniquity. One 
who had done a deed like that might well crave death and 
oblivion. But everyone who ever sinned is in that estate. 
No man ever succeeded in building around his evil a wall high 
and thick enough to contain all evil's consequences. They 
always flow over and seep through; they fall in cruel dis- 
aster on those who love us best. One never estimates his sin 
aright until he sees that no man ever bears all the results of 
his own evil. Always our sins nail somebody else to a cross ; 
they even "crucify . . . the Son of God afresh" (Heb. 6:6). 

Such is the meaning of the peril against whose background 
the New Testament believers saw the luminous figure of the 
Savior. Sin brings men into the debt of a great guilt which 
they cannot pay and into the bondage of tyrannous habits 
which they cannot break; it makes men tempting satans to 
their fellows, and it hurls its results like vitriol across the 
faces of their family and friends. And when one looks on 
the lamentable evils of the world at large, its sad inequities, its 
furious wars, he sees no need to deal delicately with sin or 
to speak of it in apologetic tones. Sin is, as the New Testa- 
ment saw it, the central problem of mankind. If anyone has 
ever come with the supreme contribution to its conquest, the 
face of the world may well be turned toward him today. In 
the Christian's faith, such a Savior has come. For if the 
visitor from Mars who so often has been imagined coming 
to earth, should come again, and amazed at the churches 
built, the anthems sung, the service wrought in Jesus' name, 
should curiously inquire what this character had done to 

254 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

awaken such response, we should have to answer : Jesus of 
Nazareth made no direct contribution to science or art or 
government or law — with none of these important realms did 
he concern himself. Only one thing he did : he made the 
indispensable contribution to man's fight for great character 
against sin. And because that is man's crucial problem, all 
science, art, government, and law are under an unpayable 
indebtedness to him. Because that is man's innermost need, 
his birthday has become the hinge of history, until one cannot 
write a letter to his friend without dating his familiar act 
from the advent of him who came to save us in our struggle 
for godliness against evil. 

IV 

Faith in Christ has a double relationship with the problem 
of man's sin ; it concerns the basis on which we are to be 
judged and the strength by which we are to conquer, Christ 
has brought to men a gospel of forgiveness and power. With 
regard to the first — and with the first alone this chapter is 
concerned — the opinion of many modern men is swift and 
summary: folk are to be judged by what they do; the output 
of a man, as of a machine, is the test of him. Until this 
popular method of judgment is convicted of inadequacy, there 
is no hope of understanding what Christians have meant by 
being "saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8). We must see that 
men are worth more than they do. 

A man's deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment, 
because motives for the same act may be low or high. No 
one can be unaware of the Master's meaning when he speaks 
of those who do their alms before men to be seen of them 
(Matt. 6: iff), or of Paul's when he says, "If I bestow all my 
goods to feed the poor . . . but have not love" (I Cor. 
13 : 3). Some men habitually shine to good advantage by such 
means ; they have the facile gift of .putting their best foot 
forward. Like a store at Christmas time, its finest goods in 
the window and inferior stock for sale upon the counters, they 
are infinitely skilful in gaining more credit than their worth 
deserves. One who has dealt with such folk becomes aware 
that to estimate an isolated deed is superficial ; one must know 
the motive. A cup of cold water or a widow's penny may 
awake the Master's spirited approval, and millions rung into 
the temple treasury by showy Pharisees meet only scorn. 

255 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because, 
while we are more than body, our bodies are the instruments 
of all that visibly we do. Many a man in spirit is like a swift 
mill race, eager for service, but the flesh, a battered mill wheel, 
ill sustains the spirit's vehemence ; it breaks before the shock. 
One must shut the gates and patch up the wheel, before the 
spirit, impatient for utterance, may have its way again; and 
some mill-wheels never can be mended. Says one of Robert 
Louis Stevenson's biographers; "When a temporary illness 
lays him on his back, he writes in bed one of his most care- 
ful and thoughtful papers, the discourse on The Technical 
Elements in Style.' When ophthalmia confines him to a 
darkened room, he writes by the diminished light. When 
after hemorrhage, his right hand has to be held in a sling, he 
writes some of his 'Child's Garden' with his left hand. 
When the hemorrhage has been so bad that he dare not speak, 
he dictates a novel in the deaf and dumb alphabet." When 
one has lived with handicapped folk, discerning behind the 
small amount of work the infinite willingness for more, and 
in the work done a quality that makes quantity seem negligible, 
he perceives that deeds are no sufficient measure of spiritual 
value. Only an eye that pierces behind the unwrought work to 
the man, willing while the flesh was weak, can ever estimate 
how much some spirits are worth. 

Deeds alone are an insufficient basis for judgment because 
men face unequal opportunities. Some start with one talent, 
some with ten. The cherished son of a Christian family ought 
to live a decent life; how favorable his chance! But if a 
vagrant wharf-rat by some mysterious vision of decency and 
determination of character makes a man of himself, how much 
more his credit! The worth of goodness cannot be esti- 
mated without knowledge of the struggle which it cost. When 
one considers the smug, conventional respectability of some, 
possessing every favorable help to goodness, and the rough 
but genuine integrity of others who have fought a great fight 
against crippling handicaps to character, he sees why, in any 
righteous judgment, the last will be first, as Jesus said, and 
the first last. Only God, with power to understand what 
heredity and circumstance some men have faced, what entice- 
ments they have met, what a fight they have really waged 
even when they may have seemed to fail, can tell how much 
they are worth. 

256 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

"What's done we partly may compute, 
But know not what's resisted." 

Judgment based on deeds alone can never truly estimate a 
man, because in every important decision of our lives an "un- 
published self finds no expression in our outward act. Duty 
is not always clear; at times it seems a labyrinth without a 
clue. Perplexed, we balance in long deliberation the opposing 
reasons for this act or that, until, forced to choose, we obtain 
only a majority vote for the decision. Yet that uncertain 
majority alone is published in our deed; man's eyes never see 
the unexpressed protestant minority behind. And when the 
choice proves wrong, and friends are grieved and enemies 
condemn and what we did is hateful to ourselves, only one 
who knows how much we wanted to do right, and who ac- 
counts not only the published but the unpublished self can 
truly estimate our worth. Peter, who denied his Lord, it may 
be because he wanted the privilege of being near him at the 
trial, is not the only one who has appealed from the outward 
aspect of his deed to the inner intention of his heart: "Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee" 
(John 21 : 17). 

Moreover, even when we choose aright, no deed can ever 
gather into utterance all that is best and deepest in us. A 
mother's love is as much greater than any word she speaks or 
act she does, as the sunshine is greater than the focused point 
where in a burning glass we gather a ray of it. We are in- 
finitely more than words can utter or deeds express. No ade- 
quate judgment, therefore, can rest on deeds alone. A ma- 
chine may be estimated by its output, but a man is too subtle 
and profound, his motives and purposes too inexpressible, his 
temptations and inward struggles too intimate and unrevealed, 
his possibilities too great to be roughly estimated by his acts 
alone. 

"Not on the vulgar mass 

Called 'work' must sentence pass, 
Things done, that took the eye and had the price ; 

O'er which, from level stand, 

The low world laid its hand, 
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice : 

257 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

But all, the world's coarse thumb 

And finger failed to plumb, 
So passed in making up the main account ; 

All instincts immature, 

Air purposes unsure, 
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount : 

Thoughts hardly to be packed 

Into a narrow act, 
Fancies that broke through language and escaped; 

All I could never be, 

All, men ignored in me, 
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped." 

V 

If, however, we are to understand the Christian's meaning 
when he speaks of being saved by faith (Rom. 3:28; 5:1; 
Gal. 3: 24), we need to see not only that men are worth more 
than they do, but as well that they are worth more than they 
are. Some things always start large and grow small; some 
things always start small and grow large; but a man may 
do either, and his value is determined not so much by the 
position he is in, as it is by the direction in which he is mov- 
ing. Even of stocks upon the market in their rise and fall this 
truth is clear. The figure at which a stock is quoted is im- 
portant, but the meaning of that figure cannot be understood 
unless one knows whether it. was reached on the way up or 
the way down. How much more is any static judgment of a 
man impossible ! One starts at the summit, with endow- 
ments and opportunities that elevate him far above his fellows, 
and frittering away his chance, drifts down. Another, be- 
ginning at the bottom, by dint of resolute endeavor climbs 
upward, achieving character in the face of odds before which 
ordinary men succumb. Somewhere these two men will pass, 
and, statically judged, will be of equal worth. But one is 
drifting down; one climbing up. The innermost secret of 
their spiritual value lies in that hidden fact. When, there- 
fore, one would judge a man, he must pierce behind the deeds 
that he can see, behind the present quality that he can esti- 
mate, back to the thing the man has set his heart upon, to the 
direction of his life, to the ideal which masters him — that is, 

258 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

to his faith. There lies the potential future of the man, his 
ultimate worth, the seed of his coming fruit. If one has eyes 
to see what that faith is, he knows the man and what the man 
is bound to be. 

When, therefore, men set their hearts on Christ, lay hold on 
him by faith as life's Master and its goal, that faith opens 
the door to God's forgiveness. In Augustine's luminous 
phrase, "The Christian already has in Christ what he hopes 
for in himself." He is Christ's brother in the filial life with 
God, young, immature, undeveloped — but the issue of that 
life is the measure of the stature of Christ's fulness. God 
does not demand the end when only the beginning is possible, 
does not scorn the dawn because it is not noon. He wel- 
comes the first movement of man's spirit toward him, not for 
the fruit which yet is unmatured, but for the seed which still 
is in the germ ; he takes the will for the deed, because the 
will is earnest; he sees the journey's end in Christlike char- 
acter, when at the road's beginning the pilgrim takes the first 
step by faith. There is no fiction here; God ought to forgive 
and welcome such a man. All good parents act so toward 
their children. This divine grace corresponds with truth, for 
a man is worth the central, dominant faith, that determines 
life's direction and decides its goal. And the Gospel that God 
so deals with man, announced in the words of Jesus, illus- 
trated in his life, sealed in his death, has been a boon to the 
race that puts all men under an immeasurable debt to Christ. 



VI 

This method of judgment which all good men use with 
their friends and families has been often disbelieved, in its 
Christian formulations, because it has been misrepresented 
and misunderstood. But human life, far outside religious 
boundaries, continually illustrates the wisdom and righteous- 
ness of so judging men by faith. Roswell Mclntyre deserted 
during the Civil War; he was caught, court-martialled, and 
condemned to death. He stood with no defense for his deed, 
no just complaint against the penalty, and with nothing to 
plead save shame for his act, and faith that, with another 
chance, he could play the man. On that, the last recourse of 
the condemned, President Lincoln pardoned him. 

259 



[X-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

"Executive Mansion, 
Oct. 4, 1864. 
Upon condition that Roswell Mclntyre of Co. E, 6th 
Reg't of New York Cavalry, returns to his Regiment and 
faithfully serves out his term, making up for lost time, or until 
otherwise discharged, he is fully pardoned for any supposed 
desertion heretofore committed, and this paper is his pass to 
go to his regiment. Abraham Lincoln." 

Was such clemency an occasion for lax character? The 
answer is written across the face of Mr. Lincoln's letter in the 
archives : "Taken from the body of R. Mclntyre at the Battle 
of Five Forks, Va., 1865." Five Forks was the last cavalry 
action of the war ; Mclntyre went through to the finish. 

Any one who knows the experience of being forgiven under- 
stands the motives that so remake a pardoned deserter. The 
relief from the old crushing condemnation, the joy of being 
trusted again beyond desert, the gratitude that makes men 
rather die than be untrue a second time, the unpayable in- 
debtedness from which ambition springs, "whether at home 
or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him" (II Cor. 5:9) — this 
is the moral consequence of being pardoned. Goodness so be- 
gotten reaches deep and high, has in it conscious joy and hope, 
feels vividly the value of its moral victories, possesses great 
motives for sacrificial service in the world. The Apocalypse 
is right. There is a song in heaven that angels cannot sing. 
Only men like Mclntyre will know how to sing it. 

The vital and transforming faith that saves is always better 
presented in a story than in an argument, and in the Scrip- 
ture the best description of it is Jesus' parable of the Prodigal. 
As the Master drew that portrait of life in the far country, 
all the watching Pharisees thought that such a boy was lost. 
The Prodigal himself must have guessed that his case was 
hopeless. His friends, his character, his reputation, his will 
were gone, and in the inner court-room of his soul with mad- 
dening iteration he heard sentence passed, Guilty. Only 
one hope remained. If he was unspoiled enough by the far 
country's pitiless brutality to think that at home they might 
bear no grudge, might find forgiveness possible, might offer 
him another chance as a hired servant, if he could think that 
perhaps his father even wanted him to come home, then there 
was hope. With such slender faith the boy turned back, from 

260 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: FORGIVENESS [X-c] 

:he far country. He had the same lack of character, the same 
weakened will, the same evil habits. Only one difference had 
is yet been wrought. Before, he had been facing toward 
swine, now he was facing toward home. The direction of his 
life was changed by faith. And when the father saw him, 
homeward bound, "while he was yet afar off," forgiveness 
welcomed him. No pardon could unload from the lad's life all 
the fearful consequences of his sin. As long as he lived, the 
scars on health, repute, and usefulness were there. But for- 
giveness could take the sin away as a barrier to personal 
friendship with the father; the old relationships of mutual 
confidence, helpfulness, and love could be restored; the glori- 
ous chance could be bestowed of fighting through the battle 
for character, not hopelessly in the far country, but victori- 
ously at home. 

One of the chief glories of the Gospel is that it has so 
reclaimed the waste of humanity, made sons of Prodigals and 
patriots of Mclntyres. Its Pauls were persecutors, its Augus- 
tines the slaves of lust, and its rank and file men and women 
to whom Christ's message has meant forgiveness, reinstate- 
ment, a new chance, and boundless hope. Scientific business 
conserves its waste and makes invaluable by-products from 
what once was slag; but Christ has been the conserver of 
mankind. The lost and sick have been returned to sanity and 
wholesomeness and service; humanity has been enriched be- 
yond computation, with Bunyans and Goughs and Jerry Mc- 
Auleys. Tolstoi's simple confession in "My Religion" is 
typical of multitudes : "Five years ago I came to believe in 
Christ's teaching, and my life suddenly became changed : I 
ceased desiring what I had wished before, and began to desire 
what I had not wished before. What formerly had seemed 
good to me appeared bad, and what had seemed bad appeared 
good. , . . The direction of my life, my desires became 
different : what was good and bad changed places." Tolstoi 
had indulged, as he acknowledges, in every form of unmen- 
tionable vice practiced in Russia ; and yet forgiven, reinstated, 
transformed, he was carried to his burial by innumerable 
Russian peasants with banners flying. Where Christ's influ- 
ence has vitally come, the loss and wreck and flotsam of the 
moral world have been so reclaimed to character and power. 

At the beginning of the Christian era, a few desolate sand 
lagoons lay off the Paduan coast of Italy. There the wild | 

261 



[X-c] 



THE MEANING OF FAITH 



Ifowl made their nests ; the lonely skiffs of fishermen threaded 
the reedy channels; the storms washed the shifting and uncer- 
tain sands. And possibly to this day the lagoons would have 
been thus barren and deserted, had not the Huns swept down 
on Italy. The Huns made the building of Venice necessary. 
They did not intend so fair a consequence of their terrific 
onslaughts. Their thoughts were on death and pillage. But 
because they came, the Italians fled to the lagoons, built there, 
behind the barricade of restless waters, their gleaming city, 
developed there the commerce that combed the world, built 
the Doge's palace as the abode of justice, and raised St. 
Mark's in praise of God. Venice was the city of Salvation; 
it rose resplendent because the Huns had come. So Christ 
turns the ruin of sin to victory, and builds in human life 
character, recovered and triumphant. If his Gospel can have 
its way, a spiritual Venice will arise to make the onslaught 
of the moral Huns an evil with a glorious issue. What 
wonder that inexpressible devotion has been felt for him by 
1 all his people? 



262 



CHAPTER XI 

Faith in Christ the Savior: Power 

DAILY READINGS 

As we saw in the last week's study, Christian faith has 
always centered around the person of Jesus himself. This 
week let us consider some testimonies from the New Testa- 
ment as to the meaning and effect of this definitely Christian 
faith. 

Eleventh Week, First Day 

It must be clear to any observing mind that the world does 
not suffer from lack of faith. There is faith in plenty; every- 
body is exercising it on some object. In the Bible we read 
of folk who "trust in vanity" (Isa. 59: 4), who "trust in 
lying words" (Jer. 7: 4), or "in the abundance of riches" 
(Psalm 52: 7); and the Master exclaims over the difficulty 
which those who "trust in riches" have when they try to 
enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10: 24). Faith, then, is 
a necessary faculty of the soul : the power by which we com- 
mit ourselves to any object that wins our devotion and com- 
mands our allegiance. No man avoids its use, and men differ 
only in the objects toward which their faith is directed. Of 
all the tragedies caused by the misuse of human powers, none 
is more frequent and disastrous than the ruin that follows 
the misuse of faith. With this necessary and powerful faculty 
in our possession, capable of use on things high or low, to 
what determination can a man more reasonably set himself 
than this? — since I must and do use faith on something, I 
will choose the highest. It is with such a rational and worthy 
choice that the Christian turns to Jesus. He is the best we 
know; we will direct our faith toward him. This does not 
mean that in the end our faith does not rest on God ; it 
does, for Jesus is the Way, the Door, as he said, and faith 
in him moves up through him to the One who sent him. As 
Paul put it, "Such confidence have we through Christ to God- 

263 



[XI-2] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

ward" (II Cor. 3: 4). But faith in Jesus is the most vivid, 
true and compelling way we have of committing ourselves 
to the highest and best we know. In the light of this truth, 
we can understand why John calls such faith the supreme 
"work" which God demands of us. 

Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the 
food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of 
man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God 
hath sealed. They said therefore unto him What must 
we do, that we may work the works of God? J^us an- 
swered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that 
ye believe on him whom he hath sent.— John 6: 27-29. 

Gracious Father! Thou hast revealed Thyself gloriously^ 

in Jesus Christ, the Son of Thy love. In Him we have found 

Thee, or rather, are found of Thee. By His life, by His 

words and deeds, by His trials and sufferings, we are cleansed 

from sin and rise into holiness. For in Him Thou hast made 

disclosure of Thine inmost being and art drawing us into 

fellowship with Thy life. As we stand beneath His Cross, 

or pass with Him into the Garden of His Agony, it is Thy 

heart that we see unveiled, it is the passion of Thy love yearn- 

ing over the sinful, the wandering, seeking that it may save 

them. No man hath seen Thee at any time, but out from 

the unknown has come the Son of Man to declare Thee. And 

now we know Thy name. When we call Thee Father, the 

mysteries of existence are not so terrible, our burdens weigh 

less heavily upon us, our sorrows are touched with joy. 1 hy 

Son has brought the comfort that we need, the comfort 0] 

knowing that in all our afflictions Thou art afflicted, that in 

Thy grief our lesser griefs are all contained. Let the light 

which shines in His face, shine into our hearts, to give us the 

knowledge of Thy glory, to scatter the darkness of fear 0) 

wrong, of remorse, of foreboding, and to constrain our lwe\ 

to finer issues of peace and power and spiritual service. Ana 

this prayer we offer in Christ's name. Amen.— Samuel Mc- 

Comb. 

Eleventh Week, Second Day 

The New Testament clearly reveals the experience that /or 
giveness comes in answer to such self-committing faith n 
Christ as we spoke of yesterday. 

264 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-2] 

And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they 
that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, 
Who is this that even forgiveth sins? And he said unto 
the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. — 
Luke 7: 48-50. 

In popular thought forgiveness is often shallowly con- 
ceived. It is thought to be an easy agreement to forget of- 
fense, a good-natured waving aside of injuries committed as 
though the evil done were of no consequence. But forgive- 
ness is really a most profound and searching experience; and 
it takes two persons, each sacrificially desirous of achieving 
it, before it can be perfected. In the pardoner, the passion 
for saviorhood must submerge all disgust at the sin in love 
for the sinner ; and in the pardoned, desire for a new life 
must create sacrificial willingness to hate and forsake the 
evil and humbly accept a new chance. It follows, therefore, 
that no one can forgive another, no matter how willing he 
may be to do so, unless the recipient fulfils the conditions that 
make pardon possible. Forgiveness is a mutual operation ; 
no forgetting or good will on the part of one person is for- 
giveness at all; and the attitude in the forgiven man that 
makes the reception of pardon possible is negatively peni- 
tence and positively faith. Any experience of human forgive- 
ness reveals that the offender must detest his sin and turn 
from it in trust and self-commitment to claim the mercy and 
choose the ideals of the one whom he has wronged. That 
God in Christ is willing to forgive is the Christian Gospel ; 
and if we go unforgiven it is for lack of faith. That is the 
hand which grasps the proffered pardon. 

Almighty God, whose salvation is ever nigh to them that 
seek Thee, we think of our little lives, of their wayward 
ways, and we remember Thee and are troubled. Our days 
pass from us and we are heated with strifes, and troubled 
and restless, with mean temptations and fugitive desires. We 
spend our years in much carelessness, and too seldom do 
we think of the greatness of our trust and the wonder and 
mystery of our being. We are vexed with vain dreams and 
trivial desires. We live our days immersed in petty passions. 
We strain after poor uncertainties. We pursue the shadows 
of this passing life and continually are we visited by our own 
self-contempt and bitterness. We have known the better 

265 



[XI-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

and have chosen the worse. We have felt the glory and power 
of a higher life and yet have surrendered to ignoble tempta- 
tions and to satisfactions that end with the hour. 

Almighty Father, of Thy goodness do Thou save our lives, 
so smitten with passion, from the failure and misery that else 
• must come to us. Be with us in our hours of self-communion, 
and inspire us with good purpose and service to Thee. Be 
with us when heart and -flesh faint, and there seems no help 
or safety near us. Be with us when we are carried into the 
dry and lonely places, seeking a rest that is not in them. 
Sustain us, we beseech Thee, under the burden of our many 
errors and failures. From the confused aims and purposes 
of our lives may there be brought forth, by the aid of Thy 
Spirit, and the teaching and discipline of life, lives constant 
and assured in service and obedience to Thee, Amen. — John 
Hunter. 

Eleventh Week, Third Day 

It is clear in the New Testament that all the free move- 
ments of divine help depend on the presence of man's faith. 
Words like these are continually on the lips of Jesus : "Be 
of good cheer; thy faith hath made thee whole" (Matt. 9: 
22) ; "According to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 
9 : 29) ; "Great is thy faith : be it done unto thee even as thou 
wilt" (Matt. 15: 28). Human life as a whole confirms the 
truth which such words suggest : Man's faith is always the 
limit of his blessing; he never obtains more than he believes 
in. Men live in a world of unappropriated truth and unused 
power ; and the blessings of truth and power can be reached » 
only by ventures of faith. Even electricity withholds its serv- 
ice from a man who, like Abdul Hamid, has not faith enough 
to try. In personal relationships this fact becomes even more 
clear. Whatever gifts of good will may be waiting in the 
heart of any man, we are shut out from them forever, unless 
we have the grace of faith in the man and open-hearted self- 
commitment to him. As the Christian Gospel sees man's case, 
the central tragedy lies here : that God in Christ is willing 
to do so much more in and for and through us than we have 
faith enough to let him do. Our unbelief is not a matter of 
theoretical concern alone ; it practically disables God, it handi- 
caps his operation in the world, it is an "evil heart of unbe- 

266 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-4J 

lief, in falling away from the living God" (Heb. 3: 12). The 
divine will is forced to wait upon the lagging faith of man. 
How often the Master exclaimed, "O ye of little faith !" 
(Matt. 6:30; 8: 26). And the reason for his lament was emi- 
nently practical. 

And coming into his own country he taught them in 
their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and 
said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty 
works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother 
called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and 
Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? 
Whence then hath this man all these things? And they 
were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A 
prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, 
and in his own house. And he did not many mighty 
works there because of their unbelief. — Matt. 13: 54-58. 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we desire to come to 
Thee in all humility and sincerity. We are sinful; pardon 
Thou us. We are ignorant; enlighten Thou our darkness. 
We are weak; inspire us with strength. In these times of 
doubt, uncertainty, and trial, may we ever feel conscious of 
Thine everlasting light. Soul of our soul! Inmost Light of 
truth! Manifest Thyself unto us amid all shadows. Guide 
us in faith, hope, and love, until the perfect day shall dawn, 
and we shall know as we are known. 

Almighty God, teach us, we pray Thee, by blessed experi- 
ence, to apprehend what was meant of old when Jesus Christ 
was called the power of God unto salvation, for we stand in 
need of salvation from sin, from doubt, from weakness, from 
craven fear; we cannot save ourselves; we are creatures of 
a day, short-sighted, and too often driven about by every wind 
of passion and opinion. We need to be stayed upon a higher 
strength. We need to lay hold of Thee. Manifest Thyself 
unto us, our Father, as the Saviour of our souls, and deliver 
us from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. Amen. — John Hunter. 

Eleventh Week, Fourth Day 

Not only is man's power to appropriate the divine blessing 
dependent on faith ; in the experience of the New Testament 
man's power of achievement has the same source. 

267 



[XI-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why 
could not we cast it out? And he saith unto them, Be- 
cause of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If 
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say 
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and 
it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 
— Matt. 17: 19, 20. 

Mountains are symbols of difficulty, and the Master's af- 
firmation here that faith alone can remove them is clearly 
confirmed in human experience. It may seem at times as 
though faith, compared with the obstacles, were like a minute 
mustard seed before the ranges of Lebanon, but faith can 
overcome even that disproportion in size. Great leaders al- 
ways must have such confidence. Listen to Mazzini : "The 
people lack faith . . . the faith that arouses the multitudes, 
faith in their own destiny, in their own mission, and in the 
mission of the epoch; the faith that combats and prays; the 
faith that enlightens and bids men advance fearlessly in the 
ways of God and humanity, with the sword of the people 
in their hand, the religion of the people in their heart, and 
the future of the people in their soul." In any great move- 
ment for human good, the ultimate and deciding question 
always is : How many people can be found who have faith 
enough to believe in the cause and its triumph ? When enough 
folk have faith, any campaign for human welfare can be won. 
Without faith men "collapse into a yielding mass of plaintive- 
ness and fear" ; with faith they move mountains. And when 
men have faith in Christ as God's Revealor — faith, not formal 
and abstract, but real and vital — they begin to feel about the 
word "impossible" as Mirabeau did, "Never mention to me 
again that blockhead of a word !" 

O God, our Father, our souls are made sick by the sight 
of hunger and want and nakedness; of little children bearing 
on their bent backs the burden of the world's work; of 
motherhood drawn under the grinding wheels of modern 
industry; and of overburdened manhood, with empty hands, 
stumbling and falling. 

Help us to understand that it is not Thy purpose to do 
away with life's struggle, but that Thou desirest us to make 
the conditions of that struggle just and its results fair. 

Enable us to know that zve may bring this to pass only 
268 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-5] 

through love and sympathy and understanding ; only as we 
realize that all are alike Thy children — the rich and the poor,. 
the strong and the weak, the fortunate and the unfortunate. 
And so, our Father, give us an ever-truer sense of human 
sisterhood; that with patience and steadfastness we may do 
our part in ending the injustice that is in the land, so that 
all may rejoice in the fruits cf their toil and be glad in Thy 
sunshine. 

Keep us in hope and courage even amid the vastness of 
the undertaking and the slowness of the progress, and sus- 
tain us with the knowledge that our times are in Thy hand. 
Amen. — Helen Ring Robinson. 

Eleventh Week, Fifth Day 

Faith in Christ has always been consummated, in the ex- 
perience to which the New Testament introduces us, in an 
inward transformation of life. 

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I 
that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I 
now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in 
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for 
me. — Gal. 2: 20. 

Such conversion of life is the normal result of a vital fel- 
lowship whose bond is faith. For one thing, a man at once 
begins to care a great deal more about his own quality when 
he believes in Christ and in Christ's love. "What a King 
stoops to pick up from the mire cannot be a brass farthing, 
but must be a pearl of great price." To be loved by anyone 
is to enter into a new estimate of one's possible value; to be 
loved by God in Christ is to come into an experience where 
our possible value makes us alike ashamed of what we are 
and jubilant over what we may become. We begin saying 
with Irenseus, "Jesus Christ became what we are that he 
might make us what he is." And then, faith, ripening into 
fellowship, opening the life sensitively to the influence of 
the friend, issues in a character infused by the friend's charac- 
ter. He lives in us. Such transformation of life does not 
happen in a moment; it requires more than instantaneous 
exposure to take the Lord's picture on a human heart; but 
time-exposure will do it, and "Christ in us" be alike our hope 
of glory and our secret of influence. 

269 



[XI-6] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

O Father Eternal, we thank Thee for the new and living 
way into Thy presence made for us in Christ; the way of 
trust, sincerity, and sacrifice. Beneath His cross we would 
take our stand, in communion with His Spirit would we pray, 
in fellowship with the whole Church of Christ we. would 
seek to know Thy mind and will. 

We desire to know all the fulness of Christ, to appropriate 
His unsearchable riches, to feed on His humanity whereby 
Thou hast become to us the bread of our inmost souls and 
the wine of life, to become partakers of Thy nature, share 
Thy glory, and become one with Thee through Him. 

Give unto us fellowship with His sufferings and insight into 
the mystery of His cross, so that we may be indeed crucified 
with Him, be raised to newness of life, and be hidden with 
Christ in Thee. 

We desire to make thankful offering of ourselves as mem- 
bers of the body of Christ; in union with all the members 
may we obey our unseen Head, so that the Body may be 
undivided, and Thy love, and healing power, and very Self 
may be incarnate on the earth in one Holy Universal Church. 
Amen—W. E. Orchard. 

Eleventh Week, Sixth Day 

With faith in Christ so seen as the secret of divine for- 
giveness and assistance, of achieving power and inward 
transformation, there can be little surprise at the solicitude 
which the New Testament shows concerning the disciples' 
faith. We find this urgent interest in Paul : 

Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought 
it good to be left behind at Athens alone; and sent 
Timothy, our brother and God's minister in the gospel 
of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concern- 
ing your faith; . . . night and day praying exceedingly 
that we may see your face, and may perfect that which 
is lacking in your faith. — I Thess. 3: 1, 2, 10. 

We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, 
brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth 
exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward 
one another aboundeth. — II Thess. 1: 3. 

And one of the most appealing revelations of Jesus' habit 
in prayer concerns his supplication for Peter's faith. 

270 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-7] 

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that 
he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for 
thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou 
hast turned again, establish thy brethren. — Luke 22: 31, 32. 

In all such passages one feels at once that faith is used 
as Paul uses it in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians 
— a comrade and ally of hope and love. It is not a matter of 
dogma and does not move in the realm of opinion, although 
ideas of the first magnitude may be involved in it. It is pri- 
marily a bond of divine fellowship, which at once keeps the 
life receptive to all that God would do for the man and 
moves the man to do all that he should for God. If that 
fails, even Peter w T ould fall in ruins, and the expression is 
none too strong, when in I Timothy the failure of such vital 
faith is described as a "shipwreck'* (I Tim. 1: 19). But 
when by faith the consciousness of God has grown clear, and 
alliance w T ith him is so real that we stop arguing about it 
and begin counting on it in daily living, the increment of 
power and confidence and stability which a man may win 
is quite incalculable. 

O Thou plenteous Source of every good and perfect gift, 
shed abroad the cheering light of Thy seven-fold grace over 
our hearts. Yea, Spirit of love and gentleness, we most 
humbly implore Thy assistance. Thou knowesi our faults, 
our failings, our necessities, the dulness of our understand- 
ing, the waywardness of our affections, the perverseness of 
our will. When, therefore, we neglect to practice what we 
know, visit us, we beseech Thee, with Thy grace, enlighten our 
minds, rectify our desires, correct our wanderings, and pardon 
our omissions, so that by Thy guidance we may be preserved 
from making shipwreck of faith, and keep a good conscience, 
and may at length be landed safe in the haven of eternal 
rest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — Anselm, 1033. 

Eleventh Week, Seventh Day 

Some who gladly acknowledge the surprising results which 
faith can work in life, do not see any great importance in 
the object to which faith attaches itself. They say that faith 
is merely a psychological attitude, and that faith in one thing 
does as well as faith in another. Folk are healed, they point 

271 



[XI-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

out, by all kinds of faith, whether directed toward fetishes, 
or saints' relics, or metaphysical theories, or God himself. 
It is the faith, they say, and not the object, which does the 
work. There is a modicum of truth in this. Faith, by its 
very power to organize man's faculties and give them definite 
set and drive, is itself a master force, and if a man has no 
interest beyond the achievement of some immediate end, 
like conquering nervous qualms or getting strength for a 
special task, he may achieve that end by believing in almost 
anything, provided he believes hard enough. But to believe 
in some things may debauch the intelligence and lower the 
moral standards, even while it achieves a practical end. To 
win power for a business task by believing in a palm-reader's 
predictions is entirely possible, but it is a poor bargain ; a 
man sells out his intelligence for cash. The object in which 
a man believes does make an immense difference in the effect 
of his faith on his mind and character. An African savage 
may gain courage for an ordeal by believing in his fetish — 
but how immeasurable is the abyss between the meaning of 
that faith for the whole of life and the meaning of a Chris- 
tian's faith in God! We have no business, for the sake of 
immediate gain, to allow our faith to rest in anything lower 
than the highest. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a 
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who 
by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a 
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein 
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need 
be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the 
proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that 
perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto 
praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ: whom not having seen ye love; on whom, though 
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of 
your faith, even the salvation of your souls. — I Peter i: 
3-9- 



Gracious Father of our spirits, in the stillness of this wor- 
ship may we grow more sure of Thee, who art often closest 

272 



' 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

to us when zve feel Thou hast forsaken us. The toil and 
thought of daily life leave us little time to think of Thee; but 
may the silence of this holy place make us aware that though 
we may forget Thee, Thou dost never forget us. Perhaps 
we have grown careless in contact with common things, duty 
has lost its high solemnities, the altar fires have gone untended, 
Thy light within our minds has been distrusted or ignored. 
As we withdraw awhile from all without, may we find Thee 
anew within, until thought grows reverent again, all work 
is hallowed, and faith reconsecrates all common things as 
sacraments of love. 

If pride of thought and careless speculation have made us 
doubtful of Thee, recover for us the simplicity that under- 
stands Thou art never surer than when we doubt Thee, that 
through all failures of faith Thou becomest clearer, and so 
ma k est the light that once we walked by seem but darkness. 
Help us then to rest our faith on the knowledge of our im- 
perfection, our consciousness of ignorance, our sense of sin, 
and see in them shadows cast by the light of Thy drawing 
near. 

If Thy purposes have crossed our own and Thy will has 
broken ours, enable us to trust the wisdom of Thy perfect 
love and find Thy will to be our peace. 

So lead us back to meet Thee where zve may have missed 
Thee. Amen. — W. E. Orchard. 

COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
I 

The forgiveness which the Gospel offers— reinstating a man 
in the personal relationships against which he sinned, and giv- 
ing him another chance — opens opportunity, but by itself it 
does not furnish power. The saviorhood of Christ, how- 
ever, so far from failing at this crucial point, makes here its 
chief claim to preeminence. However one may explain it, the 
normal quality of a genuine Christian life is moral energy. 
The Gospel not alone to Paul, but to all generations of Christ's 
disciples, had been "God's saving power for everyone who has 
faith" (Rom. i: 16). 1 

Faith always supplies moral dynamic. Emerson's challenge, 



1 MofEatt's translation. 

273 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

"They can conquer who believe they can," is easily verified in 
daily life. In practical business, in social reform, in personal 
character, no more common or fatal barrier to success exists 
than disbelief in possibilities. While some who think they 
can when they cannot, prove the rule by its exception, we are 
sure in advance that one who believes he cannot, has lost his 
battle before it has begun. Granted a task worth doing, suffi- 
cient strength for its accomplishment, and motives in plenty 
to make success desirable, and one insinuating enemy can spoil 
the enterprise. Let the subtle fear that the task is impossible 
obsess the thought, paralyze the nerve, and no hope is left. 
Like chlorine gas, such fear defeats us before we have be- 
gun to fight and fills our trenches with asphyxiated powers. 

Anyone who is to be a savior to mankind, therefore, must 
be able to make men say, "I can/' That Christ has had that 
influence on men is the commonplace of Christian biography 
from the beginning until now. "In him who strengthens me 
I am able for anything" (Phil. 4:i3) 2 is a word of Paul's 
which the best Christian experience confirms. It does not 
mean that men can do what they will, overriding all ob- 
stacles to chosen goals ; it means that they are aware of re- 
sources in reserve, of power around them and in them, so that 
they are not afraid of anything which they may face. If a 
duty ought to be done, they are confident that they can do it; 
if a trouble must be borne, they are assured that they can 
bear it. 

This buoyant faith is more than a grace of temperament. 
In Paul's case, for example, it was not due to rugged health, 
for that he lacked ; it was not the easy optimism of some hap- 
piness cult, for he was a persecuted man, bearing in his body 
"the marks of the Lord Jesus"; and such a note of assured 
resource as we just have quoted did not come from the hope- 
fulness of fortunate circumstance, but from a prison where he 
wore a chain. Paul himself is certain that his sense of power 
springs from discipleship to Jesus. And when one turns to the 
gospels, he sees that whenever the Master had opportunity to 
exert to the full his influence on men, some such result as here 
appears in Paul is evident. A contagious personality always 
enlarges the sense of possibilities and powers in other men. 
A man, leaving Trinity Church, where he had heard Phillips 
Brooks, e xclaimed, "He always makes me feel so strong." 

2 Moffatt's translation. 

274 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

It was said that one could not stand for a moment with Ed- 
mund Burke under an archway, to let a shower pass by, with- 
out emerging a greater man. Each one of us knows folk who 
so impress him. We go into their presence, weak, self-pitiful ; 
when we come out, the horizons are broader, the possibilities 
have enlarged, there is more in us than we had suspected, we 
are convinced that we can. 

To a degree that escapes our estimation Jesus exerted that 
influence on men. Napoleon said that he made his generals 
out of mud. Out of what, then, did the Master make his 
apostles? At the beginning, Peter, for example, is protesting, 
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," and Jesus 
is bending over him, saying : Come after me, and I will make 
you a fisher of men ; if you will, you can. After months of 
influence, Peter, still shamed and weak, is pleading his love 
against his deed, and Jesus is saying : Feed my sheep ; feed 
my lambs ; if you will, you can. In Jesus' relationship with 
his disciple, a great personality stands over a lesser one, by 
life and word insistently saying, You can, until power is vitally 
transmitted, and in the vacillating, vehement Simon there 
emerges rock-like, stable Peter. 

Throughout the Christian centuries nothing has been more 
typical than this of the Master's influence on men. He has 
come to innumerable sodden lives, held slaves to tyrannous 
sin, saying in the hopelessness of bondage, "I cannot," and he 
has touched them with his contagious confidence, until they 
rose into freedom, saying, "By the help of God, I can !" He 
has come into social situations where ancient evils, long en- 
trenched and seemingly invincible, withstood the assault of 
reformation, and he has put inexhaustible resource into his 
people, until they said with an old reformer, "Impossible? If 
that is all that is the matter, let us go ahead !" He has come 
to his Church, reluctant to undertake a world-wide mission, 
staggered by the task's magnitude, and he has made men pray 
with life and not alone with lip, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Wherever the influ- 
ence of Christ vitally has come, the horizons of possibility 
have widened and the sense of power grown inexhaustible. 

Such influence is of the very essence of saviorhood and 
the attitude that appropriates it is saving faith. When John 
B. Gough, desperately enmeshed in habit, faces the Chris- 
tian Gospel of release one easily may trace his changing re- 

275 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

sponse. Dubious at first, he wants to believe it but he does not 
dare. He wishes it were true, but the whole logic of his situa- 
tion, his long habit, his spoiled reputation, his weakened will, 
argue against the possibility. As Augustine said about his 
lust, "The worse that I knew so well had more power over 
me than the better that I knew not." Still, a note of authority 
in the Gospel, as though spoken by one whose power to per- 
form is equal to the thing he promises, arrests Gough's mind, 
captures his imagination, awakens his spirit's deep desire, 
until at last the Master's call, "You can," is answered by the 
human cry, "I will," and the man moves out into new possi- 
bilities, new powers, and increasing liberty. That is salvation. 
It is no formal status decreed by legal enactment, as though 
a judge technically acquitted a prisoner. It is new life, inward 
liberation from old habits, apprehensions, anxieties, and fears. 
It lifts horizons, consumes impossibilities, and at the center of 
life sets the stirring conviction that what ought to be done 
can be done. 

Christians who are accustomed lightly to assert that they are 
saved need specially to take this truth to heart. Some speak 
as though salvation were a technicality and they sing about it, 

" 'Tis done, the great transaction's done." 

To many such, were candor courteous, one would wish to say : 
Saved? Saved from what? You are habitually anxious. 
Your life is continually vexed with little fears and apprehen- 
sions. When trouble comes, you are sure that you cannot 
stand it; when tasks present themselves, you are certain that 
you cannot perform them. You have pet self-indulgences, 
from major sins to little meannesses; you know that they are 
wrong; but when suggestion comes that you surrender them, 
you are sure that you have not the strength. When causes, 
plainly Christian, on whose successful issue man's weal de- 
pends, appeal to you for help, you weaken every enterprise by 
your disheartenment. Saved from what? Not from fear, 
timidity, selfishness, and stagnation! And if you say, Saved 
from Hell— what is Hell but the final subjugation of the soul 
to such sins as you now are cherishing? The words of Jesus 
are promises of saviorhood from real and present evils : "Be 
not anxious" (Matt. 6: 34) ; "Go, sin no more" (John 8:11); 
"Fear not, little flock" (Luke 12:32). When one, by faith, 
turns his face homeward from such destroyers of life, he 

2?6 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

begins to be saved ; but only as he lives by faith in fellowship 
with the Divine and so achieves progressive victory, does he 
keep on being saved. The heart of salvation is victorious 

power. 

II 

Not all men feel the need of the power which comes from 
discipleship to Christ. They live content without such incre- 
ment of strength as Christians find in faith. Their power is 
equal to their tasks because their tasks are levelled to their 
power. One cannot understand, therefore, what the Savior- 
hood of Christ has meant to men, unless he sees how Christ 
has created the need of the very power he furnishes. He has 
done this, in part, by awakening the desire for an ascending 
life. Men do not naturally want to believe in possibilities too 
great and taxing; it always is easier to leave undisturbed the 
status quo. Even changing one's residence is difficult. 
Though one may move to a better house, yet to decide to 
move, to break old relationships, to tear up and refit the 
furnishings, and to adjust oneself to new associations mean 
stress and strain. So men come to be at home with habits ; 
they are comfortably accustomed to timidity and self-indul- 
gence. Release into a new life does not lure as privilege; it 
repels as hardship. Some sins, indeed, are followed by re- 
, morse, but others, grown habitual, bring a sense of well- 
l being and content. We like ourselves ; we do not want a 
| better life ; we are unwilling to pay its cost. Our sins are no 
! bed of nettles, but a lotus land of decent ease. Were we 
; candidly to speak to them, we should say, O Sin, you are a 
j comfortable friend! When most we want forbidden fruit 
you suggest excuses. You side happily with our inclinations 
and save us from the struggle that high duty costs and the 
sacrifice of striving for the best. Among the blessings of 
our lives, we count you not the least, O decent, comfortable, 
self-indulgent Sin ! 

Idlers thus drift listlessly and refuse a voyage with a pur- 
pose and a goal; youths living by low standards, look on 
Christlike character as beyond their interest and possibility; 
undedicated men find excuse for holding back devotion to 
great causes in the world — we shelter ourselves from aspira- 
tion and enterprise behind our faithlessness. Into such a sit- 
uation Christ repeatedly has come, bringing a vision of what 

277 



to 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

life ought to be, too imperative to be neglected, too challenging 
to be denied. Men have been shaken out of their content ; the 
true color of their lives has been revealed against his white 
background, the meanness of their plans against the wide 
ranges of his purpose. From seeing him they have gone back 
to be content in their old habits, but in vain. Can one who has 
seen a home be happy in a hovel? Ranke, the historian, says, 
"More guiltless and more powerful, more exalted and more 
holy, has naught ever been on earth than his conduct, his life, 
and his death. The human race knows nothing that could be 
brought even afar off into comparison with it." So he has 
been the disturber of man's ignoble self-content, and to say 
that we believe in him means that, no longer able to endure 
the thing we are, we go on pilgrimage toward the thing he is. 
Faith means that we decide to move. This first essential work 
of saviorhood Christ has wrought, and when men start 
follow him, they feel the need of power. 

For another thing, Christ has created a thirst for the power 
he furnishes by revealing the quality of character in the 
possession of which salvation ultimately consists. At the 
beginning of the ethical development whether of the individual 
or of the race, goodness is denned in terms of prohibitions. 
There are many things which men ought not to do; they walk 
embarrassed in the presence of their duty like courtiers be- 
fore an exacting prince. How negative and repelling such 
goodness is ! As another exclaims : "They do not break the 
Sabbath themselves, but no one who has to spend it with them 
likes to see the dreadful day come round. They do not swear 
themselves, but they make all who know them want to. They 
are just as good as trying not to be bad can make them." 

Discerning spirits, therefore, turn to goodness positively 
conceived. "Thou shalt not" becomes "Thou shalt" ; duty 
consists of rules to be kept, precepts to be observed, principles 
to be applied, and we go out to do good deeds to men. But 
whoever seriously tries to do deeds really good, faces a need | 
of moral elevation, as much beyond the outward act of good 
as that surpasses the observance of prohibitions. Good deeds 
are not a matter of will alone, but of spiritual quality. Let 
the wind blow to fan the faces of the sick, but if it discover 
that it is laden with disease, what shall it do? To blow this 
way or that may be within volition's power, but not to cleanse 
oneself. The task of character reaches inward, beyond the 

278 

- 1 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

things we do or refrain from doing to the man we are. Good- 
ness is something more than girding up the loins, blowing 
upon the hands, and setting to the work of being dutiful. It 
springs from the spirit's depths ; it is tinctured with the spirit's 
quality ; and deeds are never really better than the soul whose 
utterances they are. From "Thou shalt not do" to "Thou 
shalt do" "and from "Thou shalt do" to "Thou shalt be," man's 
flying goal of goodness moves. And this ideal in Christ has 
been incarnate, visible, imperative. He was right in the inner 
quality and flavor of his life ; and to be like him involves a 
pure and powerful personality. Whoever sets that task ahead 
knows that he cannot strut proudly into it. Like Alice enter- 
ing Wonderland he must grow very small before he can grow 
large. The Christ who has power to give has revealed the 
need of it. 

Not only by the intensifying of the ideal, but by its exten- 
sion, has Christ created thirst for divine help. In youth the 
problem of character concerns personal habits. Our untamed 
strength must be broken to the harness, and the snaffle bit be 
used upon our wayward powers. We justly fear our sins and 
in their triumph we see the wreck of individual prospects and 
the ruin of our families' hopes. Our concern centers about 
ourselves, and its crux is self-mastery. But when in maturity, 
somewhat "at leisure from ourselves" in settled habits, we 
no longer fear our own ruin nor think it probable, goodness 
extends its meaning. To play our part in man's advancement, 
to live, work, sacrifice, and if need be die for causes on which 
our children's hopes depend, becomes our ideal. As boys in 
spring-time when the ice is melting see from a hill-top the 
swirling flood that overflows the plain, and know that some- 
where underneath the unfamiliar and tumultuous rapids the 
main channel runs, from which the floods have broken, to 
which in time they must return, so in a generation when man's 
life has broken its banks in fury we still believe that the main 
course of the divine purpose is not forever lost. To believe 
that, and in the strength of it to toil for the ends God seeks, 
becomes to awakened spirits the essential soul of goodness. 

When such meanings enter into his ideal, a man runs 
straight upon the need of God. For we may make our contri- 
bution to the cause of man's good upon the earth and our 
children may make theirs, but if this world is a spiritual 
Sahara, never meant for character and social weal, and against 

279 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

the dead set of the desert's power we are building oases here 
with our unaided fingers, then the issue of our work stands 
in no doubt. The Sahara will pile its burning sands about us 
and hurl its blistering winds across us, and we and our works 
together come to naught. By as much, then, as a man really 
cares about democracy and liberty and social equity, about 
human brotherhood and Christian civilization, by so* much he 
needs God, who gathers up the scattered contributions of his 
children and builds them into victory. A man alone may 
keep the decalogue, but alone he cannot save the world. 
Who dreams of that wants power. And Christ has made men 
dream of that, believe in that with passionate certainty, until 
"Thy Kingdom come" is the daily prayer of multitudes. To 
no human strength can such prayer be offered; we are not 
adequate to an eternal, universal task. Again Christ has 
brought us to the need of power, and his people call hi: 
Savior, because the need which he creates he also satisfies. 

In one of the tidal rivers near New York, the building o 
a bridge was interrupted by a derelict sunk in the river's 
bottom. Divers put chains about the obstacle and all day long 
the engineer directed the maneuvering of tugs as they puffec 
and pulled in vain endeavor to dislodge the hulk. Then a 
young student, fresh from the technical school, asked for the 
privilege of trying, and from the vexed, impatient chief ob- 
tained his wish. "What will you do it with?" the engineei 
enquired. "The flat-boats in which we brought the granite 
from Vermont," the young man answered. So when the tide 
was out, the flat boats were fastened to the derelict. The At- 
lantic began to come in ; its mighty shoulders underneath the 
boats lifted — lifted until the derelict had to come. The youth 
had harnessed infinite energy to his task. To the consciousness 
of such resource in the spiritual world Christ has introduced 
his people. They have meant not formula but fact, not tech- 
nicality but experience, when they have called him Savior. 

Ill 

This consciousness of power has come in part from Christ's 
revelation of God the Father. Whoever has sinned against 
his friend or unkindly wronged a child knows what sin does 
to personal relationships. How swift a change comes over a 
son's thought of his father when the son has sinned! The 

280 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-cJ 

wrong may have been done secretly so that his sire does not 
know, and the boy alone on earth is conscious of it. But for 
all that the filial relationship has lost its glory. Before the sin, 
the son was happy with his father near; they were com- 
panions, confidants, and to the boy fatherhood was very beau- 
tiful. Now, he is most unhappy with his father near; the 
father's eyes like a detective's pierce him through, the face 
like a judge's waits sternly to condemn. He is looking at 
his father through the dark glasses of his sin, and they dis- 
tort his vision. When one considers the gods whom men have 
worshiped, approaching them by bloody altar-stairs, offering 
their first-born to assuage wrath or win from apathy to favor, 
he sees, extended to a racial scale, our boyhood's tragedy. 
Mankind has been looking at the Father through its ignorance 
and sin and it has seen him beclouded and awry. Christ 
changed all that. By what he taught, by what he was, by what 
he suffered he has said to man, so that man increasingly has 
believed it — You are wrong about God. He does not stand 
aloof — careless or vindictive; he is not as he looks to you 
through the twisted lenses of your evil. He loves you. He 
cares beyond your power to understand, and all my compas- 
sion but reveals in time what is eternally in him. He is 
pledged to the victory of goodness in you and in the world, 
and you have not used all your power until you have used his, 
for that, too, is yours. 

From that day the fight against sin has been a new thing, 
and men have gone into it with battle-cries they never used 
before — "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him- 
self" (II Cor. 5 : 19) ; "God commendeth his own love toward 
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" 
(Rom. 5:8); "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 

8:31). 

This access of power has come in part from Christ's revela- 
tion of man. When a jewel is taken from darkness into sun- 
light, there is a two-fold revealing. The sunlight is disclosed 
in new glory, for it never seemed so beautiful before as it 
appears breaking in splendor through the jewel's heart.' And 
there is a revelation of the jewel. Dull and unillumined in the 
dark, it is lustrous when the sun enlightens it. So Christ 
brought us an unveiling of the Father; the Divine never had 
seemed so wonderful as when it poured in glory through his 
purity and love. And he brought as well a new revelation 

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[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

of man. Our human nature, bedimmed by sin and lusterless, 
he in his own person took up into the light, and lifting it 
where all mankind could see he cried — This is human nature 
— man as God intended him to be — no slave of fate and dupe 
of sin, but a free man and a victor. And from that day the 
war on sin has had new spirit in it, and battle cries that 
presage triumph have grown familiar on the fighters' lips : 
"Now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest 
what we shall be" (I John 3: 2) ; "Till we all attain unto the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4: 13); "His precious and ex- 
ceeding great promises ; that through these ye may become 
partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). 

IV 

Christ's double revelation of God and man, however, has 
had its vital impact of power on life in what Christians have 
always called the experience of the Spirit. When the New 
Testament speaks its characteristic word about the Spirit, it 
means the conscious presence of the living God in the hearts 
of men, and that is the very essence of religion. The first 
Christians did not know God in one way only ; they knew him 
in three ways. So one man might know Beethoven the com- 
poser and be an authority upon his works; another might 
know Beethoven the performer and delight in his playing; and 
another might know Beethoven the man and rejoice in his 
friendship — but no one could know the whole of Beethoven 
until he knew him all three ways. The New Testament Chris- 
tians came thus to God. He was the Father, Creator of all; 
he was the Character, revealed in Jesus ; but as well he was 
the Spiritual Presence in their lives, their sustenance and 
power. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (II Cor. 13: 14) 
— such was their experience of the Divine. It was not dogma ; 
it was- life. God was Creator, Character, and Comforter. 

Christian experience is in continual danger of drifting from 
this vital center. In our age especially, we are prone to find 
God at the end of an argument and to leave him there. We 
have been compelled by militant agnosticism to put our apolo- 
getic armies on the defensive. Finding it impossible to hold 

2S2 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

the respect of men's intelligence without reasonable argu- 
ments in the faith's behalf, we have had to draw such infer- 
ences from the nature of the material universe, from the 
necessities of human •nought, the demands of human con- 
science, and the progress of moral evolution in history, that 
materialism should be made, what indeed it is, a discredited 
affair. But God so arrived at, by way of reason, is an ex- 
ternal matter. He is an hypothesis to explain the universe. 
"He sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants 
thereof are as grasshoppers before him." Granted the incal- 
culable value in such faith, putting unity into history and pur- 
pose into life — it is not religion and it never can be. Reli- 
gion begins when the God outwardly argued is inwardly ex- 
perienced. Religion begins when we cease using the tricky 
and unstable aeroplane of speculation to seek Him among the 
clouds, and retreat into the fertile places of our own spirits 
where the living water rises, as Jesus said. God outside of us 
is a theory; God inside of us becomes a fact. God outside of 
us is an hypothesis ; God inside of us is an experience. God 
the Father is the possibility of salvation; God the Spirit is 
actuality of life, joy, peace, and saving power. God the 
transcendent may do for philosophy, but he is not enough 
for religion. 

Without this completion of the Gospel, Christ's saviorhood 
does not reach inward to our need. For lacking it, we stand 
before the Master with the same admiration that a man who is 
no painter feels when he sees a Raphael. He knows the work 
is sublime, but he is not proposing to reproduce it. He is con- 
quered by its beauty, but he knows no possibility of its imita- 
tion. If, however, there were a spirit of Raphael that could 
lay hold upon a man's life and transform him to the master's 
skill and power, then his admiration would become inwardly 
effective. It takes the spirit of Raphael to do Raphael's work. 
If this gospel of an indwelling dynamic is not coupled with 
our admiration for Jesus, we are like a student practicing the 
fingering of the Hallelujah Chorus on an organ from which 
t the power has been shut off. With what accuracy his fingers 
travel the keys, who can tell? Once Handel's soul, on fire 
with the passion of harmony, burned itself into that composi- 
tion. He wrote it upon his knees. But with whatever agility 
the student's fingers follow the notes, no Hallelujah Chorus 
comes from his organ to praise God and move men. So the 

283 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

record of this matchless character handed to us in the gospels, 
like notes of music meant to be played again, is but our 
despair, if we must attempt its reproduction on a powerless 
organ. Our admiration for it is external and ineffectual. We 
fall thereby into a static religion of creed; we have no 
dynamic religion of progress and hope. This then is the glori- 
ous message, where the Christian Gospel reaches its climax, 
and which alone puts fullest meaning into Jesus' perfect life : 
the Spirit of God in Jesus made his quality; that same Spirit 
is underground in our lives, striving to well up in characters 
like his, until we live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us. 

Any spring day may serve to illustrate this faith. Where 
does the restlessness in nature have its source? Every tree, 
in discontent, hastens to make buds into leaves, and every 
blade of grass is tremulous with impatient life. No tree, 
however, is a sufficient explanation of its own haste and dis- 
satisfaction ; no flower has in itself the secrets of its eager 
growth. The spirit of life is abroad, and crowding itself 
everywhere on old, dead forms, is making them bloom again. 
Explain then, the moral restlessness of our hearts in other 
wise ! We do ill, and are distraught with remorse until we 
repent and make reparation. We attain money or talents, 
and are chased day and night by the urgent call to their spir- 
itual dedication. We conform ourselves to decency and still 
hear a call for goodness beyond all earthly need. We suc- 
ceed as the world calls it, and we know that it is failure; we 
fail as the world sees it, and our hearts sing for joy be- 
cause we know that we have succeeded. Everywhere we are 
confronted with a pulsing life that longs to get itself ex- 
pressed in us. We cannot get away from God. He is not far, 
he is here. This Spirit, for whom there is no better name 
than the Spirit of Jesus, is our continual companion. We are 
locked in an enforced fellowship with him. There is no friend 
with whom we deal more directly and continually than with 
him. Every time we open an inspiring book and devoutly 
study it, this Spirit is pleading for entrance. Every time we 
pray he stands at the door and knocks. Every time some 
child in need, or some great cause demanding sacrifice, lays 
claim on us, this Spirit is crying to be let in. Men's hunger 
for food, their love for family and friends, are not more 
direct, concrete, immediate experiences than our dealings with 
this Spirit of the Lord. He is not only God the Father; he 

284 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

is God the Spirit, striving to dwell in us and work through us. 

Into a vital use of this relationship with the Divine, Christ 
opened the way and multitudes have followed. He has taught 
men to find that same resourcefulness in the spiritual world 
which science finds in the physical. Every successful inven- 
tion of a man like Edison involves a twofold faith: that there 
is inexhaustible power in the universe and that, with per- 
sistent patience and cooperation, there is no telling what 
marvels yet may come from the employment of it. Faith 
is science's flying column. It runs out into engineering, agri- 
culture, medicine, and refuses to limit the possibilities. 
Science is a tremendous believer ; it lives by faith that al- 
most anything may yet be done. Such a relationship Paul 
sustained with the Spirit. He was confident of resources 
there, "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" 
(Eph. 3:20). He was a spiritual Edison, a believer in the 
divine reality and power and their availability by faith in 
human life. 

Only such a Gospel is adequate to man's deepest need. Sin,, 
whether its forms be decent or obscene, cripples men's wills 
with the appalling certainty that they are slaves. As a hyp- 
notist draws imaginary circles around his victims, across 
which they cannot step, so Sin, that Svengali of the soul, 
whether in personal or social life, paralyzes its dupes with 
disbelief in possibilities. To innumerable folk, emprisoned 
by their fears and sins, Christ has been the Savior. He has 
awakened that faith which, as he said, is the greatest moun- 
tain-mover known to men. They have been "strengthened 
with power through his Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 
3:16). 

V 

When one considers, as we have in these two chapters, 
what Christ has meant in the experience of his people, little 
wonder can remain that they have called him by such high 
names as have aroused man's incredulity. For this Gospel 
of power has never been separable from him, as though he 
were its historic fountain and could easily be forgotten by 
those who far down-stream enjoyed the water. His person- 
ality itself has been the inspiration of his people. At Marston 
Moor, when the Puritans and Cavaliers were aligned for 
battle and all was in readiness for conflict to begin, Oliver 

285 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

Cromwell came riding across the plain. And the chronicler 
says that at the sight of him the Puritans sent up a great 
victorious shout, as though their battle already had been won. 
Some such effect our Lord has had on his disciples. To ex- 
plain that effect one would have to speak not so much of his 
teaching as of himself — his character and purpose; nor so 
much of them as of the Cross where all he taught and was 
came to a point of flame that has set the world on fire. Christ 
was the 

"nerve o'er which do creep 
The else unfelt oppressions of the earth." 

He suffered with man and for man, he uniquely embodied in 
his own experience the universal law that the consequences of 
sin fall in part on the one who loves the sinner and tries to 
save him; and in that sacrifice his work for man was consum- 
mated, and his influence over man confirmed. When his 
people have bowed before him in unutterable devotion they 
have been thinking not only of what he has done for them, 
but of what it cost him to do it. 

Why, therefore, should we wonder that his disciples at their 
6est have called Jesus divine? His first followers began with 
no abstract ideas of deity; they began with "the man, Christ 
Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). They had no idea at the first that he 
was more. His bodily and mental life had obeyed the laws 
of normal human development, advancing "in wisdom and 
stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52). He 
hungered after his temptation, thirsted on the Cross, slept 
from weariness while the boat tossed in a storm, and ex- 
hausted, sat beside the well. Like other men he had elevated 
hours of great rejoicing; times when compassion moved him 
to tears, as when he saw a multitude unshepherded or, swing- 
ing round the brow of Olivet, beheld Jerusalem ; and hours of 
hot indignation, too, as when he found his Father's house a 
den of thieves or spoke out his heart against the Pharisees. 
He asked questions, and was astonished, now at the people's 
lack of faith, again at the centurion's excess of it. His fel- 
lowship with God was nourished by secret prayer, his power 
replenished by retreat to quiet places for communion, and 
all his life was lived, his temptations faced, his troubles 
home, and his work done in a spirit of humble, filial depen- 
dence on his Father. 

286 



CHRIST THE SAVIOR: POWER [XI-c] 

Thus real and human, a sharer in their limitations, their 
sorrows, and their moral trials, the first disciples saw the 
Master. But ever as they lived with him, whether in physical 
presence or in spiritual fellowship, he wrought in them a 
Savior's work. He became to them manhood indeed, but 
manhood plus. He grew in their apprehension, as though a 
boy had thought an ocean's inlet were a lake enclosed, and 
now discovers that it is the sea itself, and all its tides the 
pulse of the great deep. How should they name this greatness 
in their Lord? They were not utterly without a clue, for he 
himself had introduced them to the life divine. They had 
learned through him to say about themselves that they were 
temples in which God dwelt (II Cor. 6: 16), that God abode in 
them (I John 4: 12), that he stood ever waiting to come in 
(Rev. 3:20), and that the possession of the divine nature was 
the Gospel's promise (II Pet 1:4). By what other element in 
their experience could they interpret the greatness of their 
Lord? It might be inadequate, but it was the best they had. 
They rose to understand the divine life in him from the expe- 
rience of the divine life in themselves. "God was in Christ," 
they said. They never dreamed of claiming equality with him. 
Like pools beside the sea, they understood the ocean's quality 
from their own. There are not two kinds of sea-water; nor, 
with one God, can there be two kinds of divine life. But so 
understanding the sea, shall the pool claim equality with it? 
Rather, the sea has deeps, tides, currents, and relationships 
with the world's life that no pool can ever know. So Christ 
was at once their brother and their Lord. He was real, be- 
cause they interpreted his life divine from the foregleams of 
God's presence in themselves. He was adorable, because he 
was an ocean to their landlocked pools, and they waited for 
his tides. 

Only by some such road as these first disciples trod can men 
come to a vital understanding of the Lord. Nothing but 
experience can give us a living estimate of anything; without 
that theory is vain. Let a man live with the Master's man- 
hood until it grows luminous and through it he sees the char- 
acter of God ; let a man avail himself of the Master's savior- 
hood until forgiven and empowered he finds the "life that is 
life indeed"; let a man grow in the experience of God's pres- 
ence until he knows not only the God without but the God 
within ; and then if he rises to estimate his Lord, he will not 

287 



[XI-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

hesitate to see in Jesus the incarnate presence of the living 
God. After that, theology may help or hinder him, according 
as it is wise and vital or cold and formal ; but with theology 
or not, he knows the heart of the New Testament's attitude 
toward Jesus. He understands why the first Christians 
summed up their faith as "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ." 



288 



CHAPTER XII 

The Fellowship of Faith 

DAILY READINGS 

Our thought turns, in our closing week of study, from be- 
lievers taken one by one, to believers gathered in fellowship. 
This community of faith has wider boundaries than the 
organized churches ; in a real sense it includes all servants 
of man's ideal aims ; yet in the Church we naturally seek the 
chief meanings of fellowship for faith. Why men do not 
go to church, is often asked. But why men do go, so that 
in spite of countless failures in the churches, attendance on 
public worship and loyalty to organized religion are among 
mankind's most usual habits, is an inquirjr far more important. 
To that inquiry let us in the daily readings turn our thought. 

Twelfth Week, First Day 

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for 
ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are 
entering in to enter. 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and 
when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son 
of hell than yourselves. . . . 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for 
ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left un- 
done the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, 
and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to 
have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that strain 
out the gnat, and swallow the camel! — Matt. 23: 13-15; 
23, 24. 

Jesus* indictment of the Jewish Church is terrific, and yet 
no one who knows the story of the Christian churches can 
doubt that they often have deserved the same condemnation. 

289 



[i-IIX] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

They have at times committed all the sins that can be laid 
at any institution's door ; they have been selfish, formal, 
worldly, cruel. A wonder-story from the Arctic says that 
once the candle-flames froze and the explorers broke them 
off and wore them for watch charms ; the flames of the great 
fire congealed and were wound like golden ornaments around 
men's necks. So repeatedly the burning words of Scripture, 
the blazing affirmations of old creeds, on fire at first with 
the passion of souls possessed by God, have been frozen in 
the churches' Arctic climate, and handed to men like talismans 
and amulets, with no saving warmth or light. Creeds, rituals, 
organizations — how often these frozen forms of life have 
taken the place of inward spiritual power! Dr. Washington 
Gladden would not be alone in saying: "While therefore I 
had as large an experience of church-going in my boyhood 
as most boys can recall, I cannot lay my hand on my heart 
and say that the church-going helped me to solve my reli- 
gious problems. In fact, it made those problems more and 
more tangled and troublesome." And yet the Church goes 
on. Voltaire prophesied its collapse in fifty years, and in fifty 
years the house where he made the prophecy was a depot 
for the circulation of the Scriptures. The Church's persis- 
tence, continual adaptation to new conditions, and apparently 
endless power of revival must have some deep reason. It 
may be because prayer like this which follows has never 
utterly died out in the sanctuary. 

O Thou that dwellest not in temples made with hands! 
We ever stand within the courts of Thy glorious presence, 
only we open now the gates of our poor praise. Thou hast 
enriched this day of rest, O Lord, with Thy choicest gifts 
of peace; and lot Thou unforgetting God, its record is be- 
fore Thee, for ages past, moistened with penitential tears, 
and illumined with glad hopes, and hallowed by the innumer- 
able prayers of faithful and saintly men. In this our day may 
the churches of Thy Holy One seek Thee still in spirit and 
truth; may we also enter in and find our rest, being of one 
heart and mind, and serving Thee with a wakeful and humble 
joy. Teach us now how we may converse with Thee, for we 
cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. We are 
naked and without disguise before Thee; oh! hide not Thy- 
self from us behind our ignorance and sin. May we at least 

290 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-2] 

in this Thine hour shake off the sluggish clouds of sense and 
self that cling around our souls; and strenuously open our 
whole nature to the breath of Thy free spirit, and the health- 
till sunshine of Thy grace. Let the divine image of the Son 
of God visit us with power; driving out, with the chastise- 
ment of penitence, all obtruding passions that profane the 
temple of our hearts, and turn into a place of traffic that 
native house of prayer. O God of glory, God of grace! let 
not the things which are spiritually discerned be foolishness 
unto us through the blindness of our conscience: Thou know- 
est the thoughts of our wisdom that they are vain; take them 
from us, and bid them vanish away, lost in that wisdom from 
above which is revealed only to the pure in heart. Not unto 
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thee be every thought of 
praise! Amen— James Martineau. 

Twelfth Week, Second Day 

Some men doubtless go to church from traditional habit 
only, but such a motive obviously is not adequate to explain 
why the recurrent tides of humanity, even after an ebb in 
interest, sweep back to the Church again. In the eighteenth 
century, for example, Butler reports the common opinion 
that all that remained for Christianity was decent obsequies 
But m a few years the Wesleys began a movement that 
changed the spiritual complexion of the English speaking 
world, and swept multitudes into Christian fellowship One 
reason for this repeated fact is clear. Mankind cannot and 
will not^ consent to live without faith in God, and faith in 
God in its genesis and its sustenance is largely a matter of 
contagion. We are not so much taught it; we catch it It 
is vitally imparted in the family circle, and wherever kindred 
and believing spirits gather. No man is so independent as 
to escape the vital fact that his noblest emotions, attitudes 
ideals, and faiths are socially engendered and socially sus- 
tained ; he never would have had them in a solitary life and 
a solitary life would soon spoil those which he has now. A 
man may believe in his country and love her; but let him 
joinin a patriotic movement or even attend a high-spirited 
patriotic meeting, and he will believe in her and love her more 
ardently. Man's religious life is not lawless; it is regulated 
by the same necessities of fellowship. The Church has made 

291 



[XII-3] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

many mistakes, but on her altar the fire has never utterly 
gone out, and in her fellowship the faith of multitudes has 
been kindled. 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver 
not; for he is faithful that promised: and let us consider 
one another to provoke unto love and good works; not 
forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of 
some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, 
as ye see the day drawing nigh. — Heb. 10: 23-25. 

Great is Thy name, O God, and greatly to be praised. In 
Thee all our discordant notes rise into perfect harmony. It 
is good for us to think of the wonder of Thy being. Thou 
art silent, yet most strong; unchangeable, yet ever changing ; 
ever working, yet ever at rest, supporting, nourishing , matur- 
ing all things. O Thou Eternal Spirit, who hast set our noisy 
years in the heart of Thy eternity, lift us above the power 
and evils of the passing time, that under the shadozv of Thy 
wings we may take courage and be glad. So great art Thou, 
beyond our utmost imagining, that we could not speak to 
Thee didst Thou not first draw near to us and say, "Seek ye 
my face." Unto Thee our hearts would make reply, "Thy 
face, Lord, will we seek." . . . We thank Thee for our birth 
into a Christian community, for the Church and the Sacra- 
ments of Thy grace, for the healing day of rest, when we 
enter with Thy people into Thy House and there make holy- 
day ; for the refreshment of soul, the joys of communion, 
the spiritual discipline, the inspiration of prayer and hymn 
and sermon. . . . We praise Thee for the myriad influences 
of good, conscious and unconscious, that have been about us, 
deeply penetrating our inner life, shaping and fitting us for 
Thy Kingdom. Thou hast indeed forgiven all our iniquities, 
and healed all our diseases, and redeemed our life from 
destruction, and crowned us with loving-kindness. There- 
fore would we call upon our souls, and all that is within us, 
to bless Thy holy Name. Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Twelfth Week, Third Day 

For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not 
your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through 
love be servants one to another. For the whole law is 
fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy 

292 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-3] 

neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one an- 
other, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 
—Gal. 5: 13-15. 

One fundamental reason for the endless revival of the 
Church is that faith never is satisfied until it issues in work. 
It insists on our being "servants one to another." We 
have spoken of God's merciful acceptance of a man when 
out of sin he turns his life by faith toward Christ; but to 
interpret this as meaning the adequacy of faith without effec- 
tive service is to misread Scripture and to demoralize life. 
Faith that does not lead to service is no real faith at all. 
But whenever men endeavor to express in work any faith 
which they may hold they must come together. Service in- 
volves cooperation. A hermit may have faith, but his faith 
does not concern any ideal hopes on earth ; it has no outlooks 
save upon his own soul's condition in the world to come ; 
it is a narrow, selfish, inoperative thing. As soon as men 
are grasped by some moving faith about what ought to be 
done for God's service and man's welfare here and now, 
a hermit's solitude or any sort of unaffiliated life becomes im- 
possible. They must combine in a fellowship of faith and 
of labor to seek common ends. They begin to say with 
Edward Rowland Sill, "For my part I long to 'fall in' with 
somebody. This picket duty is monotonous. I hanker after 
a shoulder on this side and the other." And to fall in with 
others to serve Christian ends means some kind of church. 
Let us pray today for a church more fit to express this pas- 
sion to serve. 

God, we pray for Thy Church, which is set today amid the 
perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a 
great new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave 
to our spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our 
growing strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she 
gathers, the steadfast power for good she has exerted. When 
we compare her with all other human institutions, we rejoice, 
for there is none like her. But when we judge her by the 
mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. Oh, 
baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Grant 
her a new birth, though it be with the travail of repentance 
and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious respon- 
siveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an 

293 



[XII-4] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her lips the 
ancient Gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly the 
coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom of all that 
resist it. Fill her with the prophet's scorn of tyranny, and 
with a Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and down- 
trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, 
and in their hands that grope after freedom and light to 
recognise the bleeding hands of the Christ. Bid her cease 
from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant 
to give up her life to humanity, that like her crucified Lord 
she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory. 
Amen. — Walter Rauschenbusch. 

Twelfth Week, Fourth Day 

For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him 
shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction 
between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of 
all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How 
then shall they call on him in whom they have not be- 
lieved? and how shall they believe in him whom they have 
not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 
and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as 
it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring 
glad tidings of good things! — Rom. 10: 11-15. 

The necessity of affiliation for effective faith is clear when 
one considers the missionary enterprise. One of the noblest 
qualities in human life is our natural desire to share our 
blessings. Every normal child is happier when some other 
child is joining in the play; every lover of music is gladdened 
by sharing with a friend enjoyment of a favorite symphony; 
save in singularly churlish folk the love of having others 
partake our joys is spontaneous and hearty. To those whom 
Christian faith has blessed with hope and power, the un- 
deniable impulse comes to share these finest benedictions with 
all other men. The missionary enterprise does not rest upon 
a text ; it wells up from one of the worthiest impulses in man's 
life. One may be fairly sure, that save as some perverted 
theology inhibits a spirit of love, a man's missionary interest 
will be proportionate to the reality and value of his own 
experience. If he himself has something well worth sharing, 
he will want to share it. But the missionary enterprise is 

294 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-5I 

more than any individual can compass ; it demands organi- 
zation, cooperation, and massed resources ; it cannot be prose- 
cuted without a church. The further our thought proceeds 
the more clear it becomes that the question is not, shall we 
have churches? but rather, since churches are inevitable, of 
what sort shall they be? 

O Thou who hast made all nations of men to seek Thee 
and to find Thee; bless, we beseech Thee, Thy sons and 
daughters who have gone forth, into distant lands, bearing 
in their hands Thy Word of Life. We rejoice that, touched 
with the enthusiasm of Christ, so many have consecrated 
their lives to proclaiming the message of Thy love to those 
other sheep of Thine who are not of our fold, that they may 
be united with us and that there may be one Hock and one 
Shepherd. Help Thy ministering servants to recognize the 
fragments of truth and goodness that are ever found where 
men are sincere and to claim these glimpses of Thyself as 
the prophecies of a fuller revelation. When discouraged by 
the hardness of their task, and the meager fruit of all their 
labor, give them faith to see the far-off whitening harvest. 
Inspire them with Thy gracious promise that though the sower 
may go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, he will come 
again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Comfort them 
in their exile and loneliness with a sense of Thy companion- 
ship and with the prayers and sympathy of their brethren at 
home. Through them let Thy Word have free course and 
be glorified. And so let Thy Kingdom come, and Thy Will 
be done on earth as in Heaven, for Jesus Christ's sake. 
Amen. — Samuel McComb. 

Twelfth Week, Fifth Day 

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who 

I art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give 
us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, 

■ as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if 
ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father 
will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their 

j trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 

\ passes. — Matt. 6: 9-15. 

295 



[XII-5] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

The central ideal of Christian effort is set for us in the 
first petition of the Master's prayer. But a Kingdom on 
earth, with God's will done here in heavenly fashion, is a 
social idea. It means not only right personal quality; it 
means right family life, and economic, political, and inter- 
national relationships Christianized. No amount of fine in- 
dividual character, necessary as it is, will of itself rectify 
the social maladjustments and inequities. Were everyone as 
good as possible, we still should need organized action. All 
parts of an engine may be correct, and yet they maybe wrongly 
fitted together. As it is, social relations obviously demand 
concerted action; we must join together to combat immoral 
industrial conditions, to throttle the liquor traffic, to make 
human fraternity a fact and not a dream. The opposition 
to all such reforms is organized, and no haphazard attack 
will succeed. Now, many organizations may arise to serve 
special ends and may do excellent service to the cause, but 
what has proved true in the conflict with the liquor traffic, 
is true also of enterprises for industrial justice and inter- 
national cooperation — only when the churches see the moral 
issue and put their power in, is there any hope of victory, 
A Christian whose faith involves the Kingdom sees plainly 
that he cannot go on without the Church. 

O Lord, we praise Thy holy name, for Thou hast made 
bare Thine arm in the sight of all nations and done wonders 
But still we cry to Thee in the weary struggle of our people 
against the power of drink. Remember, Lord, the strong met 
who were led astray and blighted in the flower of their youth 
Remember the aged who have brought their gray hairs to a 
dishonored grave. Remember the homes that have been madi 
desolate of joy, the wifely love that has been outraged in it: 
sanctuary, the little children who have learned to des,pise 
where once they loved. Remember, O Thou great avenge, 
of sin, and make this nation to remember. 

May those who now entrap the feet of the weak and mak< 
their living by the degradation of men, thrust away thei 
shameful gains and stand clear. But if their conscience i- 
silenced by profit, do Thou grant Thy people the indomitabl 
strength of faith to make an end of it. May all the grca 
churches of our land shake off those who seek the shelte 
of religion for that which damns, and stand with level fron 

296 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-6] 

against their common foe. May all who still soothe their 
souls with half-truths, saying "Peace, peace!' where there 
can be no peace, learn to see through Thy stem eyes and come 
to the help of Jehovah against the mighty. Help us to cast 
down the men in high places who use the people's powers to 
beat back the people's hands from the wrong they fain would 
crush. 

O God, bring nigh the day when all our men shall face 
their daily task with minds undrugged and with tempered 
passions; when the unseemly mirth of drink shall seem a 
shame to all' who hear and see ; when the trade that debauches 
men shall be loathed like the trade that debauches women; 
and when all this black remnant of savagery shall haunt the 
memory of a new generation but as an evil dream of the 
night. For this accept our vows, O Lord, and grant Thine 
aid. Amen. — Walter Rauschenbusch. 

Twelfth Week, Sixth Day 

Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that 
believe on me through their word; that they may all be 
one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be in us: that the world may believe that 
thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given 
me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even 
as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may 
be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou 
didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst 
me. — John 17: 20-23. 

To the Christian the Church is a problem, just because she 
is a necessity. He caught his faith from the contagion of 
her fellowship and he sees that if he is to serve effectively 
the ideals of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom he must 
work through some church. But because the Church is neces- 
sary, he is not thereby made content with her. She is at once 
helping and hindering the spread of the faith ; she is the 
source of immeasurable good and yet she is not "one, that 
the world may believe." A traveler across the American 
plains in springtime sees fences, tiresomely prominent, star- 
ing at him from the landscape ; but in summer when he re- 
turns the fences are invisible. The wheat and corn are grow- 
ing, the earth is bearing fruit, and while the old divisions 

297 



[XII-7] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

may be there, they all are hidden. One suspects that if 
Christians everywhere set themselves with hearty zeal to 
hear the fruit of service for the common weal, if they gave 
themselves to achieve the aims of Christ for men with ardor 
and thoroughness, the sectarian divisions would grow un- 
imperative and disappear. We may not be able to think the 
disagreements through, but we may be able to work them 
out; even where we cannot recite a common creed, we can 
share a common purpose. The War, where Jewish rabbis 
have held crucifixes before the eyes of dying soldiers, and 
where Catholic priests have met death, as one did at Gal- 
lipoli, following a Wesleyan chaplain — "my Protestant com- 
rade" — into danger, has revealed how deeply underneath our 
sharp divisions our spiritual loyalties seek unity when crisis 
comes. For all the unity that can come without compromise 
to conscience, surely the Christian people are bound to pray 
and work. 

O God, the Father of our Lord lesus Christ, our only 
Saviour, the Prince of Peace; give us grace seriously to 
lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy 
divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatso- 
ever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that 
as there is but one body and one Spirit, and one hope of our 
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father 
of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, 
united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and 
charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify Thee, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — "The Book of Com- 
mon Prayer." 

Twelfth Week, Seventh Day 

For I am already being offered, and the time of my 
departure is come. I have fought the good fight, I have 
finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there 
is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; 
and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved 
his appearing. — II Tim. 4: 6-8. 

The fellowship of faith is not bounded by the earth. Paul's 
expectation took into its account a communion that far over- 

298 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-7] 

reached the confines of temporal experience. The New Testa- 
ment believers not only held but vividly apprehended that 
the "whole family" to which they belonged in Christian com- 
munion was "in heaven and on earth." Their outlook Words- 
worth has expressed in modern words : 

"There is 
One great society alone on earth : 
The noble Living and the noble Dead/* 

To that society of the world's prophets and martyrs, seers 
and servants, it may well be a man's ambition to belong. 
And that ideal is not impossible to anyone, for the mark 
and seal of their fellowship is that they have "kept the 
faith." When others despaired, lost heart, and deserted 
causes on which man's welfare hung, they kept the faith. 
When mysteries perplexed their minds and discouragement, 
to human vision, was more rational than hope, they turned 
from sight to insight and they kept the faith. When new 
knowledge, half-understood, disturbed old forms of thought 
and multitudes were confused in uncertainty and disbelief, 
they kept the faith. And they often came to their end, like 
Paul, having "suffered the loss of all things" — yet not all, 
for they had kept the faith. 

"For all the saints, who from their labors rest, 
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, 
Alleluia ! 

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, 
And win with them the victor's crown of gold, 
Alleluia ! 

O blest communion, fellowship Divine ! 
We feebly struggle ; they in glory shine ; 
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. 
Alleluia !" 

O God, Thou only Refuge of Thy children! who remainest 
true though all else should fail, and livest though all things 
die; cover us now when we fly to Thee. Thy shelter was 

299 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

around our fathers. Thy voice called them away, and bids 
ms seek Thee here till we depart to be with them. In Thy 
memory are the lives of all men from of old. Before Thy 
sight are the secret hearts of all the living. We stand in awe 
of Thy justice which, since the ages began, hath never 
changed: and we cling to Thy mercy that passeth not away. 

Almighty Father, Thou art a God afar off as well as nigh 
at hand. Thou who in times past didst pity the prayers of 
our forerunners, and especially of that suffering servant of 
Thine whom Thou hast made our Leader unto Thee! be 
pleased to strengthen us now, O Lord, to bear our lighter cross 
and surrender ourselves for duty and for trial unto Thee. 
Show us something of the blessed peace with which they 
now look back on their days of strong crying and tears, and 
teach us that it is far better to die in Thy service than to live 
for our own. Rebuke within us all immoderate desires, all 
unquiet' temper, all presumptuous expectations, all ignoble 
self-indulgence, and feeling on us the embrace of Thy 
Fatherly hand, may we meekly and with courage go into the 
darkest ways of our pilgrimage, anxious not to change Thy 
perfect will, but only to do and bear it worthily. May we 
spend all our days in Thy presence, and meet our death in 
the strength of Thy grace, and pass thence into the nearer 
light of Thy knowledge and love. Amen. — John Hunter. 



COMMENT FOR THE WEEK 
I 

So far in our studies we have been dealing with the indi- 
vidual believer in his search for a reasonable faith. But we 
must face at last what from the beginning has been true, that 
there is no such thing as an individual believer. All faiths 
are social. However little we may be aware of each other's 
influence, however intangible the social forces which shape the 
convictions by which we live, no man builds or keeps his 
faiths alone. We may pride ourselves on our independent 
thought, but the fact remains as Prof. William James has 
stated it: "Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in 
the greatest matters this is most the case." 

The realm of religious conviction is not the only place 
300 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-cJ 

where we hold with a strong sense of personal possession 
what has been given us by others, and often forget to ac- 
knowledge our indebtedness. We believe in democracy and 
popular education, not because by some gift of individual 
genius we are wiser than our unbelieving sires, but because, 
in the advance of the race, that faith has been wrought out by 
many minds, and, with minute addition of our own thought, 
we share the general conviction. As a man considers how rich 
and varied are the faiths he holds, how few of them he ever 
has thought through or ever can, and how helpless he would 
be, if he were set from the beginning to create any one of 
them, he gains new insight into Paul's words, "What hast 
thou that thou didst not receive? but if thou didst receive it, 
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" 

(I Cor. 4:7). 

Indeed, this same truth holds in every relationship. Nothing- 
is more impossible than a "self-made man." In no realm can 
that common phrase be intelligently applied to anyone. If in 
business one has risen from poverty to wealth, he has used 
railroads that he did not invent and telephones that he does 
not even understand; he has built his business on a credit 
system for which he did not labor and whose moral basis 
has been laid in the ethical struggles of unnumbered genera- 
tions. For the clothes he wears, the food he eats, the educa- 
tion he receives, he is debtor to a social life that taps the ends 
of the earth and that has cost blood not his and money which 
he never can repay. If granting this, a man still say, "My 
power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth" 
(Deut. 8:17), he may well consider whence his power has 
come. His distant ancestors stalked through primeval for- 
ests, their brows sloped back, their hairy hides barren of 
clothes, and in their hands stone hatchets, by the aid of which 
they sought their food. What has this Twentieth Century 
boaster done to change the habits of the Stone Age to the 
civilization on which his wealth is based or to elevate man's 
intellect to the grasp and foresight of the modern business 
world? All the power by which he wins his way is clearly a 
social gift, and any contribution which he may add is infini- 
tesimal compared with his receipts. 

By this truth all declarations of individual independence 
need to be chastened and controlled and all boasting cancelled 
utterly. Normal minds have their times of self-assertion in 

301 



IXII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

religion, when they grow impatient of believing anything 
simply because they have been told. As a college Junior put 
it : "I must clear the universe of God, and then start in at the 
beginning to see what I can find." But to assert a reasonable 
independence, ought not to mean that one cut himself off 
from the support of history, the accumulated experience of 
the race, the insight of the seers, and in unassisted isolation 
walk, like Kipling's cat, "by his wild lone." No man can do 
that anywhere and still succeed. Imagine a man, in politics, 
dubious of his old affiliations and disturbed by the conflicting 
opinions of his day. If, so perplexed, he should throw over 
all that ever had been thought or done in civic life, and in an 
unaided individual adventure attempt out of his own mind to 
constitute a state, in what utter confusion would he land ! No 
mind can begin work as though it were the first mind that ever 
acted, or were the only mind in action now. All effective 
thinking is social ; contributions from innumerable heads 
pour in to make a wise man's knowledge. And to suppose that 
any man can climb the steep ascent of heaven all alone and 
lay his hands comprehensively on the Eternal is preposterous. 
No one ever apprehended a science so, much less God! Even 
Jesus fed his soul on the prophets of his race. 

II 

Indeed, Jesus' attitude toward the fellowship of faith is 
most revealing, seen against the background of his nation's 
history. In the beginning, there was in Israel no such thing as 
individual religion. In the earliest strata of the Bible's revela- 
tion, we find no indication of a faith that brought God and 
each of his people into intimate relationships. Jehovah was 
the God of the nation as a whole and not of the people one 
by one. When he spoke, he spoke to the community through 
a leader; "Speak thou with us and we will hear," the people 
cried to Moses, "but let not God speak with us lest we die" 
(Exodus 20: 19). It was at the time of the Exile, when the 
nation fell in ruins, and the hearts of faithful Jews were 
thrown back one by one on God that individual trust, peace, 
joy, and confidence found utterance. It was Jeremiah (Chap. 
31) and Ezekiel (Chap. 18) who saw men individually re- 
sponsible to God, and who opened the way for loyal Jews to 
be his people even when the nation was no more. And what 

302 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

they began Jesus completed. He lifted up the individual and 
made each man the object of the Father's care. "It is not the 
will o'f your Father . . . that one of these little ones should 
perish" (Matt 18: 14). "What man of you, having a hundred 
sheep, and having lost one of them . . ." (Luke 15:4). 
"The very hairs of your head are all numbered'' (Matt. 
10:30). As for religion's inner meaning, it became in Jesus' 
Gospel not a national ritual but a private faith : "But thou, 
when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and hav- 
ing shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret" 
(Matt. 6:6). 

While Jesus, however, so emphasized the inward, individual 
aspects of religion, he did not leave it there, as though per- 
sons could ever be like jugs in the rain, separate receptacles 
that share neither their emptiness nor their abundance. He 
bound his disciples into a fellowship. He joined their 
channels until, like interflowing streams, one contributed to 
all and the spirit of all was expressed in each. He braided 
them into friendship with himself and with each other, so 
close that the community did what no isolated believer ever 
could have done — it survived the shock of the crucifixion, the 
agony of sustained persecution, the frailties of its members, 
and the discouragements of its campaign. On that group the 
Master counted for his work: "The gates of Hades shall not 
prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18). And when the New Testa- 
ment Church emerged, the fellowship which Christ himself 
had breathed into it was clear and strong. Men who became 
Christians, in the New Testament, came into a new relation- 
ship with God indeed, but into a new human fraternity as well. 
They were "builded together for a habitation of God through 
the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22), and even when death came that fel- 
lowship was not destroyed. They were still "the whole 
family in heaven and on earth" (Eph. 3:15). John Wesley 
was right: "The Bible knows nothing of a solitary religion." 
In the Old Testament religion was predominantly national ; 
in the New Testament, individuals rejoicing in the "Beloved 
Community" could not describe their life without the reitera- 
ton of "one another." They were to "pray one for another" 
and "confess sins one to another" (James 5 : 16) ; they were 
to "love one another" (I Pet. 1:22), "exhort one another" 
(Heb. 3:13), "comfort one another" (I Thess. 4:18); they 
were to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal. 6:2) and in corn*- 

303 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

munal worship "admonish one another with psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs " (Col. 3: 16). 

So when they thought of their faith, they never held it in 
solitary confidence; they were "strong to apprehend with all 
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and 
depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowl- 
edge" (Eph. 3:18). 

Ill 

When a modern believer endeavors to interpret this spirit 
in the New Testament in terms of his own wants, he sees at 
once that he needs fellowship for the enriching of his faith. 
Cooperation for achievement is a modern commonplace, but 
when Paul prayed, as we have quoted him, that the Ephesians 
might be "strong to apprehend with all the saints," he was 
stating the more uncommon proposition that men must co- 
operate for knowledge. He saw the divine love in its length, 
breadth, depth, and height on one side, and on the other a 
solitary man endeavoring to understand it. Impossible! said 
Paul ; the divine love in its fulness cannot be known in soli- 
tude, it must be apprehended in fellowship. 

At first nothing seems more strictly individual than knowl- 
edge. To know is an intimate, personal affair; it cannot be 
carried on by proxy. But even casual thought at once makes 
clear that in solitude we cannot know even the physical uni- 
verse. No man can go apart and through the narrow aperture 
of his own mind see the full round of truth. For astronomers 
study the stars, geologists the rocks, chemists know their spe- 
cial field and physicists know theirs ; each scientist under- 
stands in part, and if one is to know the breadth and length 
and height and depth of the physical world he must be strong 
to apprehend with all the scientists. 

In religion this necessity of cooperation in knowing God 
may not at first seem evident. In the secret session behind 
closed doors, as Jesus said, one finds his clearest thought of 
God, and in the individual heart the divine illumination comes. 
So some insist; and the answer does not deny, but surpasses 
the truth in the insistence. Is yours the only heart where 
God is to be found? Does the sea of his grace exhaust itself 
in what it can reveal in your bay? Rather, in how many 
different ways men come to God, how various their experi- 

304 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

ences of him, and how much each needs the rest for breadth 
and catholicity of view ! 

One man comes to God by way of intellectual perplexity 
and he knows chiefly faith's illumination of life's puzzling 
problems ; another comes through the experience of sin and he 
responds to such a phrase as "God our Saviour" (I Tim. 
i: i) ; another comes to God through trouble and has found 
in faith "eternal comfort and good hope through grace" (II 
Thess. 2 : 16) ; and another by way of a happy life has found 
in God the object of devoted gratitude. One, a mystic, finds 
God in solitary prayer; another, a worker, knows him chiefly 
as the Divine Ally. Some are very young and have a child's 
religion ; some are at the summit of their years and have a 
strong man's achieving faith ; and some are old and are 
familiar with the face of death and the thought of the eternal. 
How multiform is man's experience of God ! Some composi- 
tions cannot be interpreted by a solo. Let the first violinist 
play with what skill he can, he alone is not adequate to the 
endeavor. There must be an orchestra ; the oboes and viols, 
the drums and trumpets, the violins and cellos must all be 
there. So faith in God is too rich and manifold to be in- 
terpreted by individuals alone; a fellowship is necessary. 
Even Paul, in one of his most gloriously mixed-up and yet 
revealing sentences, prays for fellowship that his faith may 
be enriched : "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you 
some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, 
that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the 
other's faith, both yours and mine" (Rom. I : n, 12). 

Poverty of faith, therefore, is not due only to individual 
lapses of character and perplexities of mind; it is due to 
neglect of Christian fellowship. One who with difficulty has 
clung to his slender experience of God, goes up to the church 
on Sunday. Even though it be a humble place of prayer, if 
the worship is genuine, the hymns, the prayers, the Scriptures 
gather up the testimony of centuries to the reality of God. 
Here David speaks again and Isaiah answers ; here Paul 
reaffirms his faith and John is confident that God is love. 
Here the saints before Christ cry, "Jehovah is my rock, and my 
fortress, and my deliverer" (Psalm 18:2), and the sixteenth 
century answers, "A mighty fortress is our God" ; and the 
nineteenth century replies, "How firm a foundation, ye saints 
of the Lord !" We go up to the church finding it hard to sing, 

305 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

"My Jesus, I love thee, / know thou art mine" ; we go down 
with a Te Deum in our hearts : 

"The glorious company of the apostles praise thee ; 
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee; 
The noble army of martyrs praise thee; 

The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge 
thee." 

In the rich and varied faiths of the Church we find a far 
more fruitful relationship with God than by ourselves we ever 
could have gained. Without such an enriching experience 
men can only with difficulty keep faith alive. Twigs that snap 
out of the camp-fire lose their flame and fall, charred sticks ; 
but put them back and they will burn again, for fire springs 
from fellowship. Amiel, after an evening of solitude with a 
favorite book on philosophy, wrote what is many a Christian's 
prayer: "Still I miss something — common worship, a positive 
religion, shared with other people. Ah ! when will the church 
to which I belong in heart rise into being? I cannot, like 
Scherer, content myself with being in the right all alone. 
I must have a less solitary Christianitv. ,, 



IV 






Men need fellowship, not only for the enrichment ot their 
faith, but for its stability. No man can successfully believe 
anything all alone. Let an opinion in any realm be denied, 
despised, neglected by common consent of men, and not easily 
do we hold an unshaken conviction of its truth. But let it 
be agreed with, supported and endorsed by many, especially 
by men of insight, and with each additional testimony to its 
truth our faith grows confident. A fundamental experience 
of man is that his faiths are socially confirmed. 

Authority of some sort, therefore, never is outgrown in any 
province of knowledge, and strugglers after faith have solid 
right to the sustenance which it can give. For one thing the 
authority of the expert is acknowledged everywhere. When 
a great astronomer speaks about the stars, most of us put our 
hands upon our mouths and humble ourselves to listen. If in 
science, expert knowledge has this authority — not artificial, 
infallible, and externally enforced, but vital, serviceable, and 

306 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

real — how much more in realms where insight and spiritual 
quality are indispensable! Such authority comes in the spirit 
of Paul: "Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are 
helpers of your joy" (II Cor. 1:24). 

An amateur stands before a picture like Turner's "The 
Building of Carthage" and either does not notice the details, 
or noticing sees no special meaning there. But when Ruskin, 
Turner's seer, begins to speak — how wonderful the children in 
the foreground sailing toy boats in a pool, prophecy of 
Carthage's future greatness on the sea ! — one by one the 
details take fire and glow with meaning as our eyes are 
opened. Such is the service of a real authority. It does not. 
as Weigel says, put out a person's eye and then try to persuade 
him to see with some one else's. It rather cures our blindness 
and enables us to see what by ourselves we were incapable of 
seeing. Christ supremely, when allowed to be himself, has 
helped men thus. He has not oppressed the mind with bur- 
densome authority, denying us our right to think. He has 
come appealing to our little insight with his own clear vision, 
"Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" (Luke 
12:57). Things which we see dimly he has clarified; things 
which we did not see at all, he has made manifest. He has 
been what he called himself, the Light, and his people have 
said of him what the man in John's ninth chapter said, 
"He opened mine eyes" (John 9: 30). A struggler after faith 
may well count among his assets the insight of the seers and 
of the Seer. As another states it: "Our weak faith may at 
times be permitted to look through the eyes of some strong 
soul, and may thereby gain a sense of the certainty of spirit- 
ual things which before we had not." 

Beside the authority of the seers, there is the authority of 
racial experience, to which indeed no mind ought slavishly to 
subject itself, but from which all minds ought to gain insight 
and confidence. Tradition has done us much disservice. Op- 
pressions that might long before have been outgrown have 
been counted holy because they were hoary. There must be 
something to commend an opinion or a cus.tom beside its age, 
and all progress depends upon recognizing that 

"Time makes ancient good uncouth." 

But if out of the past have come evils to be overthrown, out 
of the past also have come the best possessions of the race. 

307 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

"Traditional" has grown to be an adjective of ill repute; it 
signifies in common parlance the inheritance of oppressive 
ideals and institutions that hold the "dead hand" over hopes 
of progress. But our best music also, our poetry, and our 
art are traditional ; the discoveries of our scientists on the 
long road from alchemy to chemistry, from magic to physics 
are traditional; all that each new generation begins with, 
fitted out like the well-favored child of a provident father, is 
traditional. No one can describe the utter barrenness of life, 
if we could not build on the accumulations of our sires, using 
the result of their toil as the basis of our work, their hardly 
won wisdom as our guide. To discount anything because it 
is traditional is to discount everything, except that com- 
paratively minute addition which each new generation makes 
to the slowly accumulating wisdom and wealth of the race. 
As Mr. Chesterton has put it : "Tradition may be defined as 
the extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes 
to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the 
democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the 
small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to 
be walking about. All democrats object to men being dis- 
qualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their 
being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells 
us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our 
groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, 
even if he is our father." 

Now racial experience is dubious at many points and at very 
few does it approach finality. But on one matter it speaks 
with a unanimity that is nothing short of absolute. Man can- 
not live without religion — like the earth beneath the mountain 
peaks this universal experience of the race underlies the spe- 
cial insights of the seers. When during the mid-Victorian dis- 
comfiture of faith at the first disclosures of the new science, 
Tennyson's "In Memoriam" appeared, Prof. Sidgwick wrote 
of it, "What Tn Memoriam' did for us, for me at least in 
this struggle, was to impress on us the ineffable and irradi- 
cable conviction that humanity will not and cannot acquiesce 
in a godless world." That conviction is confirmed by the 
whole experience of the race. To be sure religion, like love, 
exists in all degrees. From degraded lust to the relationship 
of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, love is infinite in 
variety ; it takes its quality from the character of those whom 

308 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

it affects ; yet through all its changes it is itself so built into 
the structure of mankind, that though there be loveless indi- 
viduals, life as a whole is unimaginable without it. So reli- 
gion runs the gamut of human quality. In a Hindu idolater it 
performs disgusting rites to placate an angry god, and in 
Rabindranath Tagore it cries: "If thou speakest not I will 
fill my heart with thy silence and endure it. I will keep still 
and wait like the night with starry vigil and its head bent 
low with patience. The morning will surely come, the dark- 
ness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams, 
breaking through the sky." In Torquemada it is cruel ; in 
Father Damien it becomes a passion for saviorhood. Reli- 
gion helped Sennacherib to his campaigns and Isaiah to his 
prophecies ; it preached the Sermon on the Mount and it 
dragged Jesus before Pilate. Can the same spring send 
forth sweet water and bitter? But religion does it, for 
religion is life motived by visions of God; it is tremendous 
in strength, but with man's unequal power to understand 
the Divine, it is ambiguous in quality. Like electricity, it 
is magnificent in blessing or terrible in curse. Yet through 
all its degrees man's relationship with the Invisible is so 
essentially a part of his humanity that lacking it he has 
never yet been discovered, and without it he cannot be con- 
ceived. It was this impressive witness of racial experience 
that made John Fiske, of Harvard, say, "Of all the implica- 
tions of the doctrine of evolution with regard to man, I be- 
lieve the very deepest and strongest to be that which asserts 
the Everlasting Reality of Religion." 

This testimony of the spiritual seers and this cumulative 
experience of the race have a right to play a weighty part in 
any consideration of religious faith. Even a rebellious youth 
might pause before he scoffs at a mature and thoughtful 
mind, letting his Church, his Scripture, and his Christ speak 
impressively to him about the reality of God. What we all do 
in every other realm, when we are wise, this mind is doing 
in religion. His individual grasp on truth he sets in the per- 
spective of history. He does not feel himself upon a lonely 
quest when he seeks God; rather he feels behind him and 
around him the race of which he is a part and which never yet 
has ceased to believe in the Divine, and he sees his own 
insights illumined by those supreme spirits who have talked 
with God "as a man talketh with his friend." He knows as 

309 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

well as any youth that authority has been stereotyped in 
theories of artificial infallibility, to which no mature mind 
for a moment can weakly surrender its right to think, but he 
refuses to give up a real authority because some have held a 
false one. The authority of the dictionary is one thing — 
literal and external. But the authority of a good mother 
moves on a different plane. It is not artificial and oppressive. 
It is vital and inspiring. She has lived longer, experienced 
more than her children; she is wiser, better, more discerning 
than they. A man who has had experience of great mother- 
hood comes to feel that if his mother thinks something very 
strongly and very persistently, he would better consider that 
thing well, for the chances are overwhelming that there is 
truth in it. How much more shall he feel so about the age- 
long experience of the saints with God! In this respect at 
least there still is truth in Cyprian's words, "He that hath 
God for his Father, hath the Church for his Mother." 



Faith needs fellowship not alone for enrichment and sta- 
bility, but for expression. For faith, as from the beginning 
we have maintained, is not an effortless acceptance of ideas 
or personal relationships ; it is an active appropriation of con- 
victions that drive life, and Christian faith especially has 
always involved a campaign whose object is the saving of the 
world. Such an expression of religious life involves coopera- 
tion ; men cannot effectively support the "work of faith" 
(I Thess. 1:3) apart from fellowship. 

The necessity for this cooperative expression of religion is 
clear when we consider the one in whom we believe. How 
anyone can expect in solitude to believe in Christ is a mystery. 
For Christ, with overflowing love to those who shared his 
filial fellowship with God, said, "No longer do I call you ser- 
vants ... I have called you friends" (John 15:15); his 
care encompassed folk who never heard of him and whom 
he never saw, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold : 
them also I must bring . . . and they shall become one 
flock, one~ shepherd" (John 10 : 16) ; and beyond his genera- 
tion's life his love reached out to followers yet unborn, "Them 
also that believe on me through their word" (John 17:20). 
Whatever other quality a movement sprung from such a 

310 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

source may possess, it must be social. Moreover, Jesus' faith 
was active ; the meaning of it he himself disclosed, "All things 
are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). In such 
a spirit, both by himself and through his followers, he sought 
the lost, healed the sick, preached the Gospel, and expectantly 
proclaimed an earth transformed to heaven. Such a character 
cannot be known in contemplation under the trees in June or 
through the pages of an interesting book. If Garibaldi, 
leading his men to the liberation of Italy, had found a devotee 
who said, I believe in you ; I love to read your deeds, and 
often in my solitary, meditative hours I am cheered by the 
thought of you — one can easily imagine the swift and pene- 
trating answer ! That you believe in me is false ; no one be- 
lieves in me who does not share my purpose ; the army is 
afoot, great business is ahead, the cause is calling, he who be- 
lieves follows. Such a spirit was Christ's. The hermits, 
whether of old time in their cells, or of modern time with 
their unaffiliated lives, are wrong. The final test of faith in 
Christ is fellowship in work. 

The Church itself has been to blame for much undedicated 
faith. Correctness of opinion has been substituted, as a test, 
for fidelity of life. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and 
thou shalt be saved," has been interpreted to mean : accept a 
theory about Christ's person and all is well. But one need 
only go back in imagination to the time when first that 
formula was used to see how vital was its import. To believe 
in Christ then meant to accept a despised religion, to break 
ties that men value more than life, to face the certainty of 
contempt and the risk of violence. To believe in Christ then 
meant coming out from old relationships and going to a sect 
where one was pilloried with derision, that one might work 
for the things which Christ represents. No one did that as 
a theory; it required a tremendous thrust of the will, a de- 
cision that reached to the roots of life. All this was involved 
in believing on Christ, and our decent holding of a theory 
about him, in a time when all lips praise him, is a poor sub- 
stitute for such vital faith. John tells us that once a multitude 
of Jews professed belief in Jesus, but the Master, hearing 
their affirmations, saw the superficial meaning there. "Many 
believed on his name," says John — "but Jesus did not trust 
himself unto them" (John 2: 23, 24). How many believe in 
Christ in such a way that he cannot believe in them! They 

3ii 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

forget that while the test of a man is his faith, the test of 
faith is faithfulness. An apostolic injunction needs modern 
enforcement, "that they who have believed God may be care- 
ful to maintain good works" (Titus 3:8). 

The necessity for a cooperative expression of religion is 
evident again in the truth which we believe. Take in its 
simplest form the Gospel which Christianity presents, that 
God is in earnest about personality, and what urgency is there 
for associated work ! For personality is being ruined in this 
world. False ideas of life, idolatry whether to fetishes in 
Africa or to money here, irreligion in all its manifold and 
blighting forms, are destroying personality from within, and 
from without sweatshops, tenements, war, the liquor traffic, 
industrial inequity, are engaged in the same task of ruin 
The common contrast between individual and social Chris- 
tianity is superficial. The one thing for which the Chris- 
tian cares is personal life, and in its culture and salvation he 
sees the aim of God and Godlike men. Whatever, therefore, 
affects that is his concern, and what is there that does not 
affect it? What men believe about life's meaning and its 
destiny strikes to the core of personal life, and the houses 
in which men live, the conditions under which they work, the 
wages that they are paid, and the environments which sur- 
round their plastic childhood — these, too, mould for good or 
ill the fortunes of personality. 

The Christian, therefore, who intelligently holds the faith 
that he professes cannot be negligent either of evangelism, 
education, and missionary enterprise upon the one side, or of 
social reformation on the other. These are two ends of the 
tunnel by which the Gospel seeks to open out a way for per- 
sonality to find its freedom. A man who says that he believes 
in Jesus Christ, and yet is complacent about child labor and 
commercialized vice, poor housing conditions and unjust 
wages, the trade in liquor and the butchery of men in war, 
stands in peril of heaving the twenty-third chapter of 
Matthew's gospel brought up to date for his especial benefit 
by the same lips that spoke it first. The indignation of the 
Master falls on priests and Levites who, speeding to the 
temple service, "pass by on the other side" the victims of social 
injury. 

Isolated Christians, however, cannot further this campaign 
for personality redeemed from inward ills and outward handi- 

312 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

caps. Evil is organised, and goodness must be, too. As wisely 
would a single patriot shoulder a rifle and set out for France 
as would an unaffiliated Christian set his solitary strength 
against the massed evil of the world. Men increase effec- 
tiveness by a large per cent through fellowship, as ancient He- 
brews saw : "Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hun- 
dred of you shall chase ten thousand" (Lev. 26:8). 

VI 

Many secondary fellowships offer to a Christian opportunity 
for associated service ; no cooperative endeavor to make this 
a better world for God to rear his children in should lack 
Christian sympathy and support. But the primary fellowship 
of Christians is the Church. Some indeed would have no 
church ; they would have man's spiritual life a disembodied 
wraith, without "a local habitation and a name." But no other 
one of all man's finer interests has survived without organized 
expression. Justice is a great ideal ; any endeavor to incar- 
nate it in human institutions sullies its purity. One who dwelt 
only on the lofty nature of justice, who thought of it uncon- 
taminated and ideal, might protest against its embodiment in 
the tawdry ritual and demeaning squabbles of a law court. 
Between the poetry of justice and the recriminations of law- 
yers, the perjury of witnesses, the fumbling uncertainty of 
evidence, the miscarriages of equity, how bitterly a scornful 
mind could point the contrast ! But a reverent mind, sorry as 
it may be at the misrepresentation of the ideal in the human 
institution, is ill content with scorn. He who with insight 
reads the history of jurisprudence, perceives how the courts 
of law, with all their faults, have conserved the gains in social 
equity, have propagated the ideal for which they stand, have 
made progress sometimes slowly, sometimes with a rush like 
soldiers storming a redoubt, and in times of stress have been 
a bulwark against the invasion of the people's rights. The 
poetry of justice would have been an idle dream without 
equity's laborious embodiment in codes and courts. 

Some minds dwell with joy upon the spiritual Church. Its 
names are written on no earthly roster, but in the Book of 
Life; its worship is offered in no earthly temple, but in the 
trysting places where soul meets Over-soul in trustful fellow- 
ship ; its baptism is not with water but with spirit, its eucharist 

313 



[XII-c] THE MEANING OF FAITH 

not with bread but with the shared life of the Lord. Or, rang- 
ing out to think of the Church as an ideal human brotherhood, 
men dream as Manson did in "The Servant in the House" : 

"If you have eyes, you will presently see the church itself 
— a looming mystery of many shapes and shadows, leaping 
sheer from floor to dome. The work of no ordinary builder ! 
. . . The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks of 
heroes : the sweet human flesh of men and women is moulded 
about its bulwarks, strong, impregnable : the faces of little 
children laugh out from every corner-stone : the terrible 
spans and arches of it are the joined hands of comrades; 
and up in the heights and spaces there are inscribed the 
numberless musings of all the dreamers of the world. It is 
yet building — building and built upon. Sometimes the work 
goes forward in deep darkness : sometimes in blinding light : 
now beneath the burden of unutterable anguish : now to the 
tune of a great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry 
of thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the night-time, one 
may hear the tiny hammerings of the comrades at work up 
in the dome — the comrades that have climbed ahead/' 

All such ideals, like pillars of fire and cloud, lead the march 
toward a promised land. They are to the actual Church what 
the poetry of justice is to the actual courts. But in one case 
as in the other, such ideals are dreams if, with labor and 
struggle, through many mistakes, against the disheartenment 
of man's frailty and sin, we do not work out an institution 
that shall embody and express man's spiritual life. Even now 
a discerning spirit whose own faith has been nourished at the 
altar regards the Church with boundless gratitude. She has 
indeed been to the Gospel what courts are to justice, indispens- 
able and yet burdensome, an institution that the ideal cannot 
live without and yet often cannot easily live with. No 
one feels her faults so acutely as one who devotedly 
values the Gospel and longs for its adequate expression 
on the earth. Yet the Church conserves the race's spiritual 
gains, fits out our youth with the treasure of man's accumu- 
lated faith, is a power house of endless moral energy for good 
causes in the world, exalts the ideal aims of life amid the 
crushing pressure of material pursuits, holds out a gospel of 
hope to men whom all others have forsaken, and to the ends 
of the earth proclaims the good news of God and the King- 

314 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF FAITH [XII-c] 

dom. No other fellowship offers to men of faith so great an 
opportunity to make distinctive contribution to the race's 
spiritual life. In the presence of the Church's service and the 
Church's need an unaffiliated believer in Jesus Christ is an 
anomaly. For enrichment, stability, and expression, faith 
must have fellowship. 

"Oh magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt His name 
together" (Psalm 34: 3). 



315 



SCRIPTURE PASSAGES USED IN THE DAILY 
READINGS 

Exouus 3: 1-5 (VI-5) ; 4' 24-26 )II-4). 

Deuteronomy 28: 65-67 (VIII-2). 

II Kings 21:3-6 (IV-5). 

Job 30:20, 21, 25-27 (X-4) ; 37:23 (V-3) ; 38:31-38 (VII-i). 

Psalms 16: 5-11 (III-5) ; 23: 1-4 (X-3) ; 27 1-6 (VIII-5) ; 
27:7-14 (V-7); 5i:i-4 (III-3); 55:i-7 (VIII-i); 56:1-3 
(VIII-3) ; 73' 2, 3, 16, 17, 24-26 (11-6) ; 103 1-5 (III-2) ; 
118: 1-6 (VIII-7); 145: 1-10 (III-7); 146: i-5 (IV-i). 

Proverbs 2: 1-5 (II-3) ; 4:1-9 (II-2). 

ECCLESIASTES 3 : II (V-3). 

Isaiah i: 10-17 (IV-2) ; 40: 26-31 (V-4) ; 51: 9-16 (VI-6) ; 

55:i-3 (II-7). 
Amos 5:21-24 (IX-4). 
Micah 6:1-8 (IX-3). 
Matthew 6:6-14 (III-i) ; 6:9-15 (XII-5) ; 6:24-33 (VI-6) 

7: 15-20 (V-6); 7: 24-27 (VI-7); 13 54-58 (XI-3) 

17:19-20 (XI-4) ; 18:12-14 (II-4) ; 21:28-31 (X-i) 

23:13-15, 23, 24 (XII-i); 25:34-40 (IX-7). 
Mark 12:28-30 (V-i). 
Luke 6:12-16 (IX-2) ; 7:48-50 (XI-2) ; 18:9-14 (IV-3) ; 

22:31, 32 (XI-6). 
John 3:21 (IX-5) ; 4:23, 24 (IV-5) ; 6:16, 17 (IX-5) ; 

6:27-29 (XI-i); 7:16, 17 (IX-5); 14:25-27 (VII-2) ; 

17:20-23 (XII-6). 
Acts 17:22-28 (IV-6). 
Romans 8: 1-6 (X-7) ; 8: 14-16 (V-5) ; 8: 24, 25 (III-4) ; 

10: 11-15 (XII-4) ; 11: 33, 34 (V-3); 11: 33-12: 2 (IX- 

6); 15: 13 (IH-4); 16: 1-8 (IX-i). 

I Corinthians 2:10-14 (VII-4) ; 3:4-9 (III-6) ; 3:18-23 

(VII-6); 4: n-13 (VI-2). 

II Corinthians 5:5 (V-2). 

Galatians 2:20 (XI-5) ; 5: 13-15 (XII-3) ; 5: 16-23 (IV-7). 
Ephesians 1:15-19 (VII-5) ; 4:13-15 (X-5). 

316 



SCRIPTURE PASSAGES 

Philippians~3: 12-16 (X-6). 

I Thessalonians 3: 1, 2, 10 (XI-6) ; 5 : 21 (V-i). 

II Thessalonians 1:3 (XI-6). 

I Timothy 6:20, 21 (II-5). • 

II Timothy 1:3-5 (H-i) ; 4:6-8 (XII-7). 

Hebrews 1 : 1, 2 (VII-7) ; 2: 8-10 (VI-3) ; 4: '1, 2, (1-6); 
10:23-25 (XII-2) ; 10:32-36 (I-4) ; 11: 1 (i-i); 11:3. 6 
1-5 ) ; 11:8-10 (I-2) ; 11:13-16 (I-i); 11:24-27 (I-2) ; 
ri : 32-40 (I-3) ; 12: 1-3 (VI-4) ; 13: 7 (1-7). 

James i : 2-8 (X-2) ; 2: 14-21 (IV-4) ; 5 13-16 (VIII-4). 

I Peter i : 3-9 (XI-7) ; 4: 12-16, 19 (VI-i). 

II Peter 1:5 (V-i). 
Jude 20-25 (VII-3). 



SOURCES OF PRAYERS USED IN THE 
DAILY READINGS 

Alfred, King — IX-3. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," 

by S. F. Fox. 
Anselm, St. — XI-6. 'A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," 

by S. F. Fox. 
Arndt, Johann — IX-i ; X-i. "A Chain of Praver Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Arnold, Thomas — VII-5. "A Chain of Prayer Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Bacon, Francis — VII-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Beecher, Henry Ward — 1-4 ; I-7 ; II-7 ; III-5 ; III-7 ; IV-7 ; 

V-7; VI-6; X-5. 'A Book of Public Prayer." 
Book of Common Prayer — XI 1-6. 
Dawson, George — X-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Hale, Sir Matthew — VII-4. "A Chain of Prayer Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Hunter, John— I-i ; IV-5 ; XI-2; XI-3 ; XII-7. "Devotional 

Services for Public Worship." 
Jenks, Benjamin— X-2. "A Chain of Prayer Across the 

Ages," by S. F. Fox. 



SOURCES OF PRAYERS 

McComb, Samuel— 1-6; II-i ; III-i ; VI-3 ; VIII-i ; VITI-2; 

VIII-3; VIII-5; VIII-6; VIII-7; IX-2; XI-i; XII-*; 

XII-4. "A Book of Prayers for Public and Personal 

Use." • 
Martineau, James— III-4; IV-4; V-2; VI-2; XII-i. "Pray- 
ers in the Congregation and in College." 
Newman, Francis Henry — VI-i ; VI-7. "A Chain of Prayer 

Across the Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Orchard, W. E.— 1-2; I-3 ; II-i; II-3; II-4; II-5; H-6; 

III-2; IV-3; IV-6; V-i; V-3 ; V-6; VI-5 ; VII-i ; VII-3: 

VII-7; VIII-4; IX-5; X-7; XI-5; XI-7: "The Temple." 
Parker, Theodore— I-5 ; V-4; V-5; VI-4; VII-6; X-6. 

"Prayers." 
Rauschenbusch, Walter — III-6; IV-i ; I V-2; IX-4; IX-6; 

XII-3 ; XII-5. Prayers of the Social Awakening." 
Robinson, Helen Ring — XI-4. "Thy Kingdom Come," by 

Ralph E. DifTendorfer. 
Shaftesbury, Earl of — IX-7. "A Chain of Prayer Across 

the Ages," by S. F. Fox. 
Stevenson, Robert Louis — III-3. "Prayers Written at 

Vailima." 
Van Dyke, Henry — IV-6. "Thy Kingdom Come," by Ralph 

E. Diffendorfer. 
Weiss, S— X-3. "A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages," by 

S. F. Fox. 



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